School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2022 Jun;25(6):377-383. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2022.0005. Epub 2022 May 20.
Research assessing online trolling-a behavior designed to trigger or antagonize other users for entertainment-has largely focused on identifying individual differences that underlie the behavior. Less attention has been given to how situational factors influence trolling, such as the disinhibiting effects of anonymity. In this study, we evaluated the roles of both individual differences and levels of anonymity in online trolling. We assessed these through experimentation, a relatively novel approach in trolling research. Australian undergraduate students ( = 242, 167 women, 75 men, = 21.18) were allocated to one of three conditions: an anonymous condition where they were not visible to one another, an identifiable condition where they were visible to one another, or an external condition where they completed the study outside of a controlled laboratory environment. Participants first read a short news article before interacting in an online group discussion where participants could chat freely. The first comment participants wrote was later coded for trolling. Participants also completed assessments of psychopathy, sadism, and a global assessment of trolling. As predicted, participants in the anonymous condition trolled more than those in the identifiable condition. No differences were seen between these two conditions and the external condition. Analyses also revealed that sadism and global trolling were positively associated with trolling in the chat room, but psychopathy showed no association. These results demonstrate the importance of both individual differences and the disinhibiting effects of anonymity when investigating the complex nature of trolling.
研究评估了网络喷子行为——一种旨在娱乐目的而激怒或挑衅其他用户的行为——主要集中在识别行为背后的个体差异上。而对于情境因素如何影响喷子行为，如匿名的抑制作用，关注较少。在这项研究中，我们评估了个体差异和匿名程度在网络喷子行为中的作用。我们通过实验来评估这些，这是喷子研究中相对较新的方法。澳大利亚本科生（n=242，167 名女性，75 名男性，M=21.18）被分配到以下三个条件之一：匿名条件，即他们彼此不可见；可识别条件，即他们彼此可见；或外部条件，即他们在非受控实验室环境中完成研究。参与者首先阅读一篇简短的新闻文章，然后在一个在线小组讨论中互动，在这个讨论中，参与者可以自由聊天。参与者写的第一条评论后来被编码为喷子行为。参与者还完成了对精神病态、虐待狂和喷子整体评估的评估。正如预测的那样，匿名条件下的参与者比可识别条件下的参与者喷子行为更多。但这两个条件与外部条件之间没有差异。分析还表明，虐待狂和整体喷子行为与聊天室中的喷子行为呈正相关，而精神病态则没有关联。这些结果表明，在调查喷子行为的复杂本质时，个体差异和匿名的抑制作用都很重要。
