Objective: Trolling, that is, triggering disruption and conflict for one’s own amusement, is a malicious online behavior that causes substantial, negative consequences for its victims. Research is needed to better understand, and ultimately to prevent, trolling behavior. To this end, the current study examined potential demographic and psychosocial predictors of social media trolling behavior in a collegiate population. Methods: College students (N = 504; 82% female) completed an online survey in which they provided demographics, information about their social media habits, and responses to validated personality and psychosocial assessment instruments. Participants were categorized as positive or negative for trolling behavior based on their self-reported social media habits. Results: Based on the final regression model, significant predictors of trolling included male gender, greater need for participation in social media, and greater likelihood to make downward social comparisons on social media. Conclusions: Taken together, these results provide new information that may help to identify those at risk of engaging in trolling behavior. These findings contribute to a developing literature that may lead to prevention and intervention strategies to reduce negative outcomes and to improve online experiences for everyone.

Introduction

Within the last decade, social networking sites have grown to be the most popular online activity worldwide, representing over 1.2 billion global users and occupying one out of every 5 min spent online (Comscore, 2011). Along with this increase in social media use, bullying and other malicious online behaviors have made an appearance in cyberspace. This type of behavior has been termed cyberbullying, and has been defined by Smith et al. (2008, p. 376) as “an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot defend himself or herself.” During the past 10 years, reports of the prevalence rates of cyberbullying have ranged from 10% to 40% depending on study methodology (Lenhart, 2012; O’Brennan, Bradshaw, & Sawyer, 2009).