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: 3, Informative) by stormwyrm on Sunday June 22 2014, @02:31PM
I remember an article [soylentnews.org] from several months back. Seems like the same research, judging from the researchers' names.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 22 2014, @02:52PM
Indeed, it made the rounds of ALL the normal news sites many months ago, including mainstream media.
I can't figure out what it's doing on the front page today.
(Score: 5, Informative) by stormwyrm on Sunday June 22 2014, @03:01PM
Indeed, and it seems that this is already the second time the article [soylentnews.org] was duped! Incidentally, the dupe I was trying to link to was this [soylentnews.org]. I should never post links while mobile...
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 23 2014, @01:34AM
Just as patent applications should have as part of the approval process an opportunity to review those by a battery of persons skilled in the art, the Submissions page [soylentnews.org] needs a button beside each item allowing the community to point to a previous story that looks very much like the "new" item.
At a minimum, it would make the Related Stories section more inclusive.
The Firehose concept the other site has isn't such a bad idea either.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 23 2014, @03:23AM
Or, you know, someone with authority, let's call them an "editor" for kicks, could use his or her brain to check the date(s) involved, which in this case was shown to be old news RIGHT IN THE URL OF THE LINKED ARTICLE.