Billy goats crossing the cyber-bridge: Interviews exploring the experiences, coping techniques, and intervention desires of in-game trolling targets

ABSTRACT

Research into online trolling has been continuously expanding in the past decade. However, much of this research has focused on either the person of the trolls themselves, or on specific minority groups. Although all of this research is important, we still know little about how the average person deals with trolling experiences in their everyday. The present study aims to fill that gap by interviewing 22 gamers from various backgrounds who have professed to being targeted by trolls in the past. Results indicate that targets prioritize solving the problem themselves by muting or blocking trolls over seeking external support. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Online trolling
• computer-mediated communication
• coping techniques
• online gaming
• interventions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions. The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, CLC. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions regarding participant privacy after institutional review.

Authors’ declaration & funding note

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 One participant was living in the same geographic location as the research team and was therefore paid in person in cash instead of via PayPal.

2 Times were rounded up to the nearest minute for all calculations.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan: [Grant Number #111-2811-H-004-006]; [Grant Number 109-2423-H-004-004-SS4].