IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i11p5722-d562784.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Haters Gonna Hate, Trolls Gonna Troll: The Personality Profile of a Facebook Troll

Author

Listed:
  • Haukur Freyr Gylfason

    (Department of Business, Reykjavik University, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Anita Hrund Sveinsdottir

    (Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Vaka Vésteinsdóttir

    (Department of Psychology, University of Iceland, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir

    (Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland)

Abstract

Personality factors, such as the Dark Tetrad personality factors (Machiavellianism, narcissism and sadism) relate to greater online trolling. Other personality factors, such as the Big Five Personality factors, honesty–humility and negative social potency, may also play a role in cyberbullying, which is an aggressive behavior similar to trolling. The purpose of this study was to predict Facebook trolling behavior based on personality factors. A total of 139 participants completed a survey on their online behavior and personality factors. Online trolling behavior positively correlated with sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and negatively correlated with agreeableness, conscientiousness and honesty–humility. A hierarchical linear regression showed that sadism, Machiavellianism and negative social potency were the only unique predictors of online trolling behavior. Trolling was unrelated to the frequency of Facebook use and the frequency of commenting. Enjoyment of trolling fully mediated the relationship between Machiavellianism and the trolling behavior. The results thus suggested that Facebook trolling behaviors may be motivated by enjoying the manipulation of others.

Suggested Citation

  • Haukur Freyr Gylfason & Anita Hrund Sveinsdottir & Vaka Vésteinsdóttir & Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir, 2021. "Haters Gonna Hate, Trolls Gonna Troll: The Personality Profile of a Facebook Troll," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5722-:d:562784
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5722/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5722/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gylfason, Haukur Freyr & Arnardottir, Audur Arna & Kristinsson, Kari, 2013. "More on gender differences in lying," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 94-96.
    2. Daniel Falla & Rosario Ortega-Ruiz & Eva M. Romera, 2021. "Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement in the Transition from Cybergossip to Cyberaggression: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Raquel Escortell & David Aparisi & María Carmen Martínez-Monteagudo & Beatriz Delgado, 2020. "Personality Traits and Aggression as Explanatory Variables of Cyberbullying in Spanish Preadolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-11, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monika Verbalyte & Christoph Keitel & Krista Howard, 2022. "Online Trolls: Unaffectionate Psychopaths or Just Lonely Outcasts and Angry Partisans?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(4), pages 396-410.
    2. Kolbrun Harpa Kristinsdottir & Haukur Freyr Gylfason & Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir, 2021. "Narcissism and Social Media: The Role of Communal Narcissism," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alm, James & Bruner, David M. & McKee, Michael, 2016. "Honesty or dishonesty of taxpayer communications in an enforcement regime," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 85-96.
    2. Christine L. Exley & Judd B. Kessler, 2019. "The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion," Working Papers 2019-058, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    3. John W D’Attoma & Clara Volintiru & Antoine Malézieux, 0. "Gender, Social Value Orientation, and Tax Compliance," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 66(3), pages 265-284.
    4. Uyanga Turmunkh & Martijn J. van den Assem & Dennie van Dolder, 2019. "Malleable Lies: Communication and Cooperation in a High Stakes TV Game Show," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4795-4812, October.
    5. Grosch, Kerstin & Rau, Holger A., 2017. "Gender differences in honesty: The role of social value orientation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 258-267.
    6. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Joo Young Jeon & Chulyoung Kim & Sang-Hyun Kim, 2021. "Gender Differences in Repeated Dishonest Behavior: Experimental Evidence," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-11, May.
    7. Heike Hennig‐Schmidt & Hendrik Jürges & Daniel Wiesen, 2019. "Dishonesty in health care practice: A behavioral experiment on upcoding in neonatology," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 319-338, March.
    8. Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Siniver, Erez & Tobol, Yossef, 2014. "Roll a die and tell a lie – What affects honesty?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 153-172.
    9. Corinna Claus & Ekkehard A. Köhler & Tim Krieger, 2022. "Can Moral Reminders Curb Corruption? Evidence from an Online Classroom Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9670, CESifo.
    10. Gylfason, Haukur Freyr & Olafsdottir, Katrin, 2017. "Does Gneezy's cheap talk game measure trust?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 143-148.
    11. Alice Guerra & Emanuela Randon & Antonello E. Scorcu, 2022. "Gender and deception: Evidence from survey data among adolescent gamblers," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 618-645, November.
    12. Nieken, Petra & Dato, Simon, 2016. "Compensation and Honesty: Gender Differences in Lying," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145758, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Juan de D. Benítez-Sillero & José M. Armada Crespo & Esther Ruiz Córdoba & Javier Raya-González, 2021. "Relationship between Amount, Type, Enjoyment of Physical Activity and Physical Education Performance with Cyberbullying in Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    14. Vranceanu, Radu & Dubart, Delphine, 2019. "Deceitful communication in a sender-receiver experiment: Does everyone have a price?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 43-52.
    15. Chadi, Adrian & Homolka, Konstantin, 2022. "Little Lies and Blind Eyes – Experimental Evidence on Cheating and Task Performance in Work Groups," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 122-159.
    16. Paul M. Gorny & Petra Nieken & Karoline Ströhlein, 2023. "He, She, They? The Impact of Gendered Language on Economic Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 10458, CESifo.
    17. Childs, Jason, 2013. "Personal characteristics and lying: An experimental investigation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 425-427.
    18. Bernd Irlenbusch & Marie Claire Villeval, 2015. "Behavioral ethics: how psychology influenced economics and how economics might inform psychology?," Post-Print halshs-01159696, HAL.
    19. Barron, Kai & Nurminen, Tuomas, 2018. "Nudging cooperation," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2018-305, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Andrej Angelovski & Daniela Cagno & Werner Güth & Francesca Marazzi, 2020. "Telling the other what one knows? Strategic lying in a modified acquiring-a-company experiment with two-sided private information," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 97-119, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5722-:d:562784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.