Media releases

Identifying what motivates individuals to engage in internet trolling is the focus of an Australian-first study led by Federation University Australia.

The study discovered trolling behaviours stem from a feeling of fulfilment by creating social mayhem and disruption, also known as negative social potency.

The work comes as psychology experts at Federation University Australia call for targeted education campaigns to safeguard users of popular social media sites against the harmful behaviours of internet trolls.

Dr Evita March, Lead Researcher and Psychology Lecturer at Federation University Australia’s Gippsland Campus, said men were more likely to engage in trolling behaviours than women.

Higher levels of psychopathy and sadism tend to predict trolling behaviours, with sadism being the strongest factor.

“More often they are trolling to elicit a reaction. Knowing that others are annoyed by their behaviour fuels their desire to do it more,” Dr March said.

“With more than 3.17 billion people connected to the internet around the world, Dr March said the anonymity of the online environment and fast communication makes the internet fertile ground for trolling.  

“Facebook, one of the most popular social media sites, has become the biggest online playground for engaging in antisocial behaviours, particularly trolling. It makes it more likely and it makes it more dangerous.”

Dr March urges people to do the best they can not to react to trolls.

“Don’t feed the trolls. If the purpose of their behaviour is to elicit an emotional reaction from you – try to deny them the satisfaction of an angry reaction and hopefully they will disappear,” she said.

Dr March is using her research published in Elsevier to inform larger studies to better understand the outcomes of victims of and predictors of who trolls like to target and why.

In addition, she hopes the study will start the development of education campaigns to assist social media administrators to put in better protection mechanisms for their users.

The death of popular TV presenter Charlotte Dawson who took her own life in 2014 after becoming a target of internet trolls was the impetus for the study. 

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