Anyone Can Become An Internet Troll, According To Stanford Computer Scientists

Most people are quick to dismiss internet trolls as completely unlike themselves ― the fabled 400-pound guy sitting on his bed, for instance. And with partisan rage taking over Twitter alongside the election of a troller in chief, it can feel like we’re living in the golden age of internet trolling: Posting inflammatory and offensive comments online for the purpose of provoking others has become a sadly common phenomenon.  Thanks to a new study from computer scientists at Stanford and Cornell, we now have a better understanding of how ordinary people easily adopt this antisocial and damaging behavior.  The truth is, under the right circumstances, anyone can become a troll, posting comments or updates that are intended to be provocative, offensive and insulting.  The findings, which will be presented at the 2017 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, suggest that trolling isn’t an innate characteristic, but rather a behavior that can be stimulated.  “Certainly the sociopaths exist, but understanding that ordinary people aren’t completely innocent, and can be susceptible to trolling too, can help explain how trolling might spread through a community and become prevalent,” Justin Cheng, a Stanford computer scientist and one of the study’s lead authors, told The Huffington Post. How to build a troll in two steps  For the experiment, the researchers recruited 667 peo...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news