Psychological Profile Of The Troll In Social Networks

What is it that leads a person to attack others on social media? Why are there people with this negative and hurtful disposition who have found their ideal place on the web? There are people who know that their comments are direct attacks, but still write them because they find it fun. A research team from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Psychology of the Australian University of Mount Helen carried out a study that put on the table the personality traits of this type of user: the troll in social networks.

They looked for particular social traits and skills in men and women with this behavior and found that the study trolls scored much higher than the rest on two important traits: psychopathy and cognitive empathy. Let’s see below what these two traits tell us about trolls.

What does the psychopathy trait tell us about the troll on social media?

Psychopathy is an antisocial personality disorder. The term is in disuse in the clinical environment and is beginning to be replaced by that of sociopath.

It is not yet clear what the origin of this personality disorder is. It appears to have a genetic component that could be expressed in terms of an unloving environment in childhood. Hypotheses are also being considered about certain cerebral alterations in the frontal lobe, caused by malformation, disease or brain injury.

Robert Hare, Ph.D. in psychology has conducted research in the study of psychopathy for more than three decades. His research has yielded a series of common characteristics that define people with this disorder. They are people with a tendency to boredom, they need constant stimulation and they do not have the capacity to generate long-term goals. They are manipulative and want to feel empowered and in control over others. They have many narcissistic traits.

They have a severe deficit in impulse control and react in an angry manner. They have problems fitting in with social and moral norms, although in many cases they show a false social adaptation with a very superficial personal charm.

They consider that they have great value. They take pleasure in inflicting pain on others. It is a disorder that appears in both men and women, although statistically it is more typical of men. They also seem to be completely lacking in empathy, although this is not exactly the case. Now we will see why.

The dark side of empathy

Affective empathy and cognitive empathy are related, but distinct, cognitive processes. They involve the activation of different brain areas. There are psychometric tests that measure each specific type of empathy, such as the BES (Basic Empathy Scale) and that are very effective in assessing the type and levels of empathy in subjects.

Affective empathy is in turn divided into:

• Parallel : ability to know how another person feels and also experience the same emotions.
• Reactive : in addition to the above abilities, those who possess it also have the ability to react to its result, as if it affected them directly.

Both affect the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain. We speak of a “hot” empathy. The troll on social media completely lacks this kind of empathy.

But there is also a “cold” empathy, known as cognitive empathy, which is not as popular. It is the kind of empathy that the social media troll possesses at high levels. Cognitive empathy (sometimes called perspective taking) is the ability of the person who possesses it to know what another is feeling, but without the affective component.

That is, the suffering of others is not felt, on the contrary, it is thanks to this type of empathy that the troll in social networks is able to predict and recognize the emotional suffering of its victims and uses it to do the greatest possible damage. It affects two regions of the brain, the prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex, both involved in reasoning and decision-making.

A hand pump

These two traits united in the same person make up an explosive potential. The truth is that the troll in social networks is a person full of poison. Poison that he needs to inoculate in others, sheltering himself in anonymity, so as not to drown in it. And on many occasions it succeeds.

Other similar studies found that some topics especially appeal to the troll on social media. In many cases they do not even read the publications or they do so by re-interpreting their content in the sense that interests them. There are no studies yet that tell us how to stop this phenomenon, although not responding to its attacks seems to be the best way to prevent its undesirable behavior from getting reinforcement.