Communications of the ACM
Stanford Research Shows That Anyone Can Become an Internet Troll
Researchers have investigated whether Internet trolls are innately sociopathic or combative individuals, or if situational factors can influence ordinary people to act like trolls.
Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images
Researchers at Stanford and Cornell universities investigated whether Internet trolls are innately sociopathic or combative individuals, or if situational factors can influence ordinary people to act like trolls.
In one experiment, 50% of participants who were in a bad mood after completing a difficult test and reading negative comments on a discussion forum engaged in trolling behavior on the forum. Meanwhile, just 35% of people who were in a good mood and saw neutral comments trolled the forum.
Researchers then created a machine-learning algorithm to predict whether a user's next post would be flagged based on various factors. The findings showed the flag status of the previous post in the discussion was the strongest predictor of future trolling. The user's posting history and timing were less predictive, indicating the context in which users post is most likely to lead to trolling.
From Stanford News
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2017 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found