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Results suggests trolls aren't seeking praise or wanting to manipulate; other studies indicate they may breed more. While it's important to preface what is to follow with a reminder that correlation doth not causation make, a new study [Pay Walled, Abstract Available] has found seemingly clear ties between internet trolling and a person's likelihood of being predisposed to the "Dark Triad." [Pay Walled, Abstract Available] But more interestingly it finds that only one particular negative personality trait is stroked by trollish behavior and its findings suggest trolls may be breeding.
The paper's critical finding was that the Dark Triad of personality traits were often correlated, or in other words someone who was narcissistic would be more likely to be psychopathic, and so on, statistically speaking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/02/12/online-trolls-are-just-everyday-sadists-according-to-new-paper/
http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Internet+Trolls+are+the+Prototypical+Everyday+Sadists/article36091.htm
(Score: 5, Informative) by umafuckitt on Sunday June 22 2014, @01:59PM
Google is your friend [scottbarrykaufman.com]. Pro-tip: with research papers just search for the article title in quotes plus "pdf". It often does the trick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 22 2014, @04:16PM
This helps for this article. Generally, the parent poster still has a point: The link to the freely available paper should have been in the submission instead of the link to the paywalled article.