--- title: Internet Trolls Are Sadists and Psychopaths, Psychologist Report Finds description: Trolls are susceptible to sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. canonical: https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-13T16:35:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:13.056Z og:title: Internet Trolls Are Sadists and Psychopaths, Psychologist Report Finds og:description: Trolls are susceptible to sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. og:url: https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65946b8a0f24f265/698682b7e53aba0f244d127b/troll_meme.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: troll_meme og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Internet Trolls Are Sadists and Psychopaths, Psychologist Report Finds twitter:description: Trolls are susceptible to sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65946b8a0f24f265/698682b7e53aba0f244d127b/troll_meme.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Internet Trolls Are Actually Sadists, Study Finds by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Feb 13, 2014 4:35 PM UTC  Kyle Chayka by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Feb 13, 2014 4:35 PM UTC The YouTube comment section is known as a special circle of hell—and that might be because the people leaving provocative comments are literally sadists and psychopaths, a new study titled “[Trolls just want to have fun](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324)” has discovered. Canadian psychologists Erin Buckels, Paul Trapnell, and Delroy Paulhus set up a survey of personality inventories matched with “Internet commenting styles”—in other words, they attempted to psychoanalyze commenters, which should be cause for a Nobel prize (and hazard pay) in itself. What came from the study will likely surprise no one: people who like to troll are also likely to show signs of “sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.” Those three character flaws make up the ominous “[Dark Tetrad](http://www.sott.net/article/266289-Dark-Tetrad-of-personality-traits-Everyday-sadists-take-pleasure-in-others-pain) of personality.” Sadism means delighting in the harm of others, psychopathy is an antisocial personality disorder, and Machiavellianism means a person’s tendency to be unemotional and deceitful. Trolls seem to have all three on lock. Of course, it might just be that the Internet has a tendency to turn people into sadists as a result of its anonymity. This was enshrined by the “online disinhibition effect” that leads us to treat other people online as less than human. (It’s also known by a [less scientific name](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory).) If we can’t see their faces, they’re not real, right? Not all commenters are psychopaths, however. Thankfully the study concludes, “Enjoyment of other online activities, such as chatting and debating, was unrelated to sadism.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/"},"headline":"Internet Trolls Are Actually Sadists, Study Finds","datePublished":"2014-02-13T16:35:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:13.056Z","description":"Trolls are susceptible to sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.","url":"https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Psychology","Internet","Science topic","trolls"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65946b8a0f24f265/698682b7e53aba0f244d127b/troll_meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65946b8a0f24f265/698682b7e53aba0f244d127b/troll_meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"troll_meme","caption":"","creditText":"Kyle Chayka","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/","name":"Internet Trolls Are Actually Sadists, Study Finds"}}]}] ```