A new study claims that women engage in trolling behaviour just as much as men when using dating apps like Tinder.
The research, recently published in Personality and Individual Differences, was done by Evita March from Federation University, University of Tasmania’s Rachel Grieve, Jessica Marrington from the University of Southern Queensland and Peter K. Jonason from Western Sydney University.
Titled “Trolling on Tinder® (and other dating apps): Examining the role of the Dark Tetrad and impulsivity”, the research studied the behaviour of 357 active Tinder users from Australia.
The online daters took a questionnaire that was designed to assess their personality traits and behaviour on the dating app.
As Evita March, a psychology lecturer at Federation University Australia, explained: “Participants were asked if they had trolled people on the app, sent any shock comments for a laugh, or if they enjoyed “griefing” other people who access the app.
“These slang words were chosen as they are commonly used in trolling culture.”
Looking at the responses given, the Australian researchers were surprised to find that the study suggested men and women were equally likely to troll others on Tinder.
This is contrary to previous research that found men engage in the anti-social online behaviour more often that women.
And although there was no difference between the two sexes, “the traits of psychopathy, sadism, and dysfunctional impulsivity were significantly associated with trolling behaviours”, the researchers said.
In an article about the research, March said: “Results of our study show that internet trolls may troll as a dysfunctional impulse, and cost-free dating apps may offer the perfect opportunity to do it.
“So in the quest to find love online and to avoid nasty trolls along the way, you may be better off actually paying for the online dating service, as the financial costs of site membership may deter those impulsive trolls.”
Read more here.