Many video game trolls are actually just vigilantes acting on a misunderstanding, study suggests

An Indiana University study indicates that online video game participants perceive certain actions as trolling based on contextual factors, rather than the intentions behind the actions themselves. The researchers found that minor details in a game environment, such as earning points or whether the action targeted a teammate or opponent, significantly influence how players interpret ambiguous behaviors and decide whether to retaliate with their own harassment.

The study, published in Communication Research, aimed to understand how players explain the motives of others and how this perception can trigger a chain reaction of retaliatory behavior. According to lead researcher John A. Velez, a small fraction of gamers consistently initiate harassment, but the majority of observed trolling is a result of a chain reaction, where being a victim of harassment leads players to engage in similar behavior themselves.

The researchers tested three potential variables that could shape players' interpretations of actions as trolling. First, whether the game rewarded the behavior with points, which acts as an external excuse. Second, whether the action targeted a teammate or an opponent. Third, whether the community had a reputation for toxic behavior.

The study recruited 290 adult video gamers from the United States. Participants were shown a three-minute staged gameplay video from the popular team-based shooter game Overwatch, which featured a player dancing over the body of a defeated character while voice chat and text communication were disabled. The researchers manipulated three environmental clues in different versions of the video.

In one version, participants saw text indicating that the player earned ten points for performing the dance. In another version, the same dance was shown without any points awarded. In a third version, participants read a fabricated internal report about the gaming community's norms before watching the video, with half of the participants being told that trolling was common and expected, while the other half read that toxic behavior was rare in the community.

After watching the video, participants rated how they perceived the player's intentions using a seven-point scale. The results showed that the lack of a point reward for the dance led participants to perceive the behavior as more malicious, with a perceived trolling score of 4.69 compared to 4.03 when points were awarded. Additionally, dancing over a teammate resulted in higher perceptions of trolling, averaging 4.60, compared to 4.12 when the action targeted an opponent.

Finally, participants who read about a community that frequently engaged in toxic behavior rated the behavior as more malicious, averaging 4.45, compared to 4.12 when the community was portrayed as less toxic. The study highlights the importance of context in how players interpret actions in online gaming and the potential for a single perceived instance of trolling to trigger a chain reaction of retaliatory behavior, perpetuating a culture of hostility within gaming communities.