Internet Trolls: “The Modern Psychopath”
What makes the internet special is its ability to unite billions of people from all walks of life on one large interconnected community. Sadly, not all members of this community use the internet for noble reasons. A study by YouGov showed that “28 percent of Americans admitted (to) malicious online activity directed at somebody they didn’t know.” (YouGov) This is only one of many alarming statistics that demonstrates the prevalence of online harassment, cyber-bullying and intimidation. Many people have started calling this large emerging group of online harassers “internet trolls”. A troll, as defined by Erin E. Buckels in his seminal paper called “Trolls just want to have fun”, are a group of people
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Let’s begin with the term internet troll. Trolls come in many shapes and sizes, and their actions vary in severity. Some trolls leave cruel comments on social media, while others send rape threats to anonymous people. The most severe of all internet trolls, are the ones who create internet viruses and scams for their mere pleasure. All trolls share similarities; however there exists one big distinction between the different types of trolls. One type commits criminal offenses while the other type is simple unpleasant. Since this paper will mostly compare internet trolls to pro-social psychopaths, the non-criminal trolls will be the main focus in the essay. Now, the term psychopaths, internet psychopath, pro-social psychopath and narcissistic personality disorder need to be defined. A psychopath is anybody who scores above a 25 on the PCL-r checklist. An internet psychopath is an individual who scores high on Michael Nuccitelli online checklist. The definition of pro-social psychopath used in this paper, is the same as the one used by Paul Babiak of a productive and functional psychopath. Narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder will be defined by their descriptions in the DSM. Other terms will be explained as they appear in the …show more content…
The challenge when trying to determine whether or not trolls are psychopaths using various checklists is that the PCL-r and others like it are not meant to evaluate groups, but rather individual people. In order to see whether internet trolls are psychopaths, their most common characteristics will be analyzed with various items on psychopathy checklists. Whatever conclusions are drawn about internet trolls are merely speculative and not representative of all internet trolls.
Another issue when using the PCL-r to diagnosing internet trolls is that trolls are anonymous, thus not much is known about their early behaviour problems, short-term marital relationships, criminal versatility, etc. Regardless, internet trolls don’t seem to check off many points on the PCL-r anyways. According to Whitney Phillips in her paper “Meet the Trolls”, these people are usually introverted, socially awkward and not very impressive (Phillips). This description is the polar opposite of a psychopath as describe by Robert Hare’s PCL-r. Perhaps, trolls are pro-social psychopaths. This theory, however seem nearly impossible to prove due to the limited knowledge we have of both internet trolls and pro-social psychopaths. Overall, trolls score low on the PCL-r; however, I think this is because the PCL-r is not an effective tool for the diagnosis of internet
The psychopath know the reasons behind acting a certain way and just don't think about the consequences. Even in the DSM-IV clear definitions of a psychopath doe not exist but the closes to diagnose is anti-social personality disorder. Dr. Hare instead developed the Psychopathy Checklist for people to diagnose psychopathy. The first part of the Psychopathy Checklist looks at the emotional and interpersonal traits of the disorder(Hare, 1993). Some of the emotional qualities that the clinician would look for is as followed: glib/superficial, egocentric/grandiose and lack of empathy.
Psychopaths are strict when committing a crime. They plan there crime before they do it. Because they think there crimes through, they are hardly found about. In the article, “Psychopath vs sociopath” it says “tendency to participate in schemes and take calculated risks to minimize evidence or exposure.” People portray them to be very violent people but it is rare for them to do violent crimes. They tend to do smaller crimes but they can be serial killers. As they feel no guilt when doing the crime, although, when they do a big crime they can be undetected for a long
Sociopaths are prevalent among society, and some researchers, like Martha Stout, claim that one out of every twenty-five people is a sociopath. However, this statistic is incorrect. This statistic is based on the assumption that sociopaths and psychopaths are the same people—which is untrue. While the sociopathic and psychopathic traits overlap, sociopaths differ in that they are obviously nervous and agitated, unable to create the illusions that psychopaths are so proud of. They live on the fringes of society, uneducated and unable to keep a steady job. Psychopaths, unlike sociopaths, are suave and able to maintain an illusion of conformity and maintain relationships on a superficial level. Both, however, are dominantly male, tend to disregard the rights and social mores of others, and have a tendency display violent and disruptive outbursts without remorse. Unlike psychopaths, who completely lack remorse and the ability to love, sociopaths may attach themselves to certain people, though they still remain contemptuous of the rest of humanity (7).
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
Trolls are the main cause of message board abuse. They do not try to work with the community, but rather try to destroy it.
Modern scholars have in the recent decades engaged in the controversial debate on the actual classification of the group Anonymous. Some scholars classify the group as trolls while other associates it with hackers groups. As defined, hackers are individuals or groups that search and exploit the computer system weakness (Messmer 65). In most instances, hackers engage in discouraging and unappealing activities for multiple reasons including challenging the existing systems, protesting against the prevailing rules and regulations, and for profit making. On the other hand, trolls are groups of individuals who engage in the process of sowing discord on the internet through instigating arguments that aim at upsetting community members and leaders (Keith 11). Trolls are also popular for posting off-topic, extraneous, and inflammatory information on the internet. Although hackers and trolls are the main actors in the current threatening cyber crimes, the two groups have varying reasons for abusing the existing technology. Moreover, despite the existence of detailed and intensive strategies to address the two groups of crime, the actors have been outshining the global policy implementers and formulators in numerous occasions (Messmer 65). However, based on the available evidence, the Anonymous group is more of a hacker group than a troll group.
Are psychopaths like Alice, “mad or bad?” (page 21). The question whether psychopaths are mentally ill or just a bad seed has caused much debate. Dr. Hare explains that the problem is not only labeling them mad or bad, but who deals with them. “Does the treatment or control of the psychopath rightly fall to mental health professionals or to the correctional system?” (page 21). Not only are professionals confused on how to classify psychopaths, but the media also creates confusion. Psychopath means mental illness and the media uses the word to classify someone as, “insane or crazy”, (page 22). Dr. Hare explains that even though psychopaths, “cannot be understood in terms of traditional views of mental illness”, they, “are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders…psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why.” (page 22). Most professionals use the term psychopath and sociopath as one in the same. Since DSM-III, antisocial personality disorder has been used in place of psychopath and sociopath. Philippe Pinel was the first psychiatrist describe a psychopath and Harvey Cleckley was one of the first successful publish a book describing a psychopath to the general public . Pinel used the term, “insanity without delirium”, (page 25). Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity, which influenced researchers in North America. Dr. Robert Hare explained that WWII was the first time clinicians felt a need to diagnosis people with psychopathy. Due to the draft, there was a need to weed out the people could disrupt or harm the military structure. Dr. Robert Hare realized how hard it was to identify a true psychopaths from rule breakers and developed the Psychopathy Checklist. This checklist is used world wide to help clinicians identify true
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
Some of the most important information about psychopathy is that it is a personality disorder. These people are usually charming the way into people’s life to use and manipulate them to get what they want. These people do not have a soul of remorse for what they do because all they care about is themselves and what they can get from others. When these people using their charm they ma...
Traditional bullying that used to occur commonly on school-grounds has now been over shadowed by harassment through the Internet and other technology related devices. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary “cyber bullying” is defined as ...
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
Contrary to the movie industry’s portrayal of psychopaths, rarely do psychopaths come out in the open and kill their victims with chainsaws or wear disturbing masks. Nor do they act menacing or evil out in public. Rather, most psychopaths attempt to blend into society. A psychopath can be defined as one who uses superficial charm and manipulation to achieve his or her goals, even if it involves committing crimes. They can act quickly and feel neither remorse for committing the crime nor empathy for their unsuspecting victim. As much as they attempt to blend in, psychopaths are unable to fully function in society because they lack some qualities of a “normal” person. In the medical field, psychopathy is not recognized as a disorder. In fact, Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary defines psychopathy as an “obsolete term” (Venes and Taber 1372). In an effort to define psychopathy, multiple psychiatrists attempted to describe i...
Bayram ‚etin, Erkan Yaman, Adem Peker. Cyber victim and bullying scale: A study of validity and reliability. Computers & Education. June 27, 2011.
All around the United States, the prevalence of cyberbullying ranges from 10-40% of people who get bullied through electronics. Furthermore, this is a problem caused by kids, teens, and adults who target one another online by repeating harmful threats and harassments. This conflict negatively impacts the victims’ life which is why anyone who cyberbullies should pay the consequences and be prosecuted.
Public opinion is often emotional rather than rational, so it is extremely easy to be incited and would possibly cause cyber bullying, which means to attack one person or a small group of persons by using offensive language. The damage caused by cyber bullying to a person is not virtual but real. An article from PR Newswire called “Cyber Hunting and Cyber Bullying” tells a st...