Virtual Reality in Psychological Research and Therapy

The current state of research regarding trolling has yet to develop a sound methodology to determine what constitutes flame trolling. Nevertheless, the research has pointed to several common themes of flame trolls that Study 1 uses to formulate a method to distinguish flaming comments from other comments. 

At least 2 reviewers will parse through both comments made on the Youtube videos and the corresponding questionnaire regarding the participant's rationale behind the comment and video choice. The current trolling literature details that flame trolls typically have high levels of sadism, mirrors cyberbully behavior, and typically target the disadvantaged, minority, and/or individuals with low self-esteem. Furthermore, the content of flame comments are typically derogatory, humiliating, and/or enrages others for the amusement of the commenter; this notion is important to distinguish between individuals who may "accidentally" comment on something that enrages or humiliates someone (e.g. commenting out of ignorance) from those who purposefully post flame comments. 

All comments must have an inter-rater agreement of 100%, and reviews of each comment can undergo several stages. The first stage is a private review in which the ratings each reviewer gives is private. The set criteria, briefly mentioned above and informed by the current literature, will be used to determine whether a comment should be rated as "0" for "No trolling" and "1" for "Trolling." The scores will then be averaged to produce the total level of trolling present. 

Example: Participant 1 receives scores of 1, 0, and 1 (1 score for each of the 3 videos chosen) during the pre-experimental assessment. The total trolling level is 0.67. This score will then be compared with the post-experimental assessment and used during statistical analyses.