Psychology-Psychiatry

The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in internet trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others). It is hard to underplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.

It’s the so called non-conspiracy theorists. Let’s meet face to face with your typical non-conspiracy theorist. We all know them, they often are the ones who hold the “conspiracy” verbal accusation as a valid logically defined argument in and of itself. You know, the guy who tries to terminate conversations by alleging that you are nothing more than a “conspiracy theorist” and therefore the information you share is false or not believable. Yes, that guy. this:

We like to think that we reach conclusions by reviewing facts, weighing evidence and analyzing arguments. But this is not how humans usually operate, particularly when decisions are important or need to be made quickly. What we usually do is arrive at a conclusion independently of conscious reasoning and then, and only if required, search for reasons as to why we might be right.