心理学家如何看待“网络喷子”？

What is it with people’s behavior online? Why the readiness to attack, the snarky tone, the lack of courtesy inherent to so many comments?

人们在网上是怎么回事？为什么时刻准备好攻击别人？为什么这么多的评论都尖酸刻薄、没有教养？

The internet can bring out the worst in people, which when taken to extremes turns into trolling—that bizarre impulsive habit of hurting others online, without consequence.

互联网能让人展现出自己最恶劣的一面，其中的极端情况就是网络暴力——这是一种不明就里的冲动，让人想在网上不顾后果地伤害别人。

Using an online questionnaire, the researchers at the School of Health Science and Psychology at Federation University tested 415 men and women for a range of personality traits, as well as for online behavior that indicated a propensity to troll.

联邦大学健康科学及心理学学院的研究人员，通过一份网络调查问卷，对415名男男女女进行了关于一系列人格特质的测试，同时也测试了一些能表明出网络暴力倾向的行为。

The researchers were looking for particular traits including social skills, psychopathy, sadism, and two types of empathy: affective and cognitive.

研究人员寻找的特质包括社交技巧、心理变态、虐待欲，以及两种同理心——情感性同理心和认知性同理心。

Having high cognitive empathy simply means they can understand others’ emotions.

认知性同理心很高，意味着这些人能理解别人的感情。

Having high affective empathy means a person can experience, internalize, and respond to those emotions.

情感性同理心很高，则意味着一个人能够体会、内化这些感情，并对它们做出反应。

The “trolls” in the study scored higher than average on two traits: psychopathy and cognitive empathy.

实验中的“喷子们”在两项特质上比一般人的得分高：心理变态和认知性同理心。

So even though “trolls” exhibit one kind of empathy, coupling it with psychopathy ultimately makes them nasty, the researchers suggested.

所以，研究者指出，虽然“喷子们”表现出其中一种同理心，但它和心理变态结合起来却最终让这些人变得很恶劣。

Psychopathy includes a lack of care for others’ feelings.

心理变态这一点包括“不在乎别人的感受。”

High levels of cognitive empathy make these people adept at recognizing what will upset someone, and knowing when they’ve pushed the right buttons.

高水平的认知性同理心，让这些人很擅长找出哪些行为能惹恼一个人，也让他们能知道自己何时达到了目的。

The lack of affective empathy allows trolls not to experience or internalize the emotional experience of their victims

而低水平的情感性同理心，让喷子们不用体会和内化受害者的感受。