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About 1% of the population are psychopaths.
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This means there is a fair chance many of us have at least one psychopathic Facebook friend.
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Some studies have looked into how people with Dark Tetrad personality traits behave on social media.
Psychopaths are prevalent online. Studies have shown that people with Dark Tetrad personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism — are more likely to say trolling is their favourite internet activity.
Research has also shown that men are more likely than women to bully people online.
The amount of psychopaths in the global population is thought to be about 1%. That means for people with hundreds of friends on social media, you might be in with a good chance of at least one of them being a diagnosable psychopath.
With trolling, a psychopath can use anonymity as a mask to fulfil their psychopathic tendencies, while maintaining a normal persona in real life. But this is difficult to do with a personal Facebook profile. So how would you be able to tell?
There are some obvious signs of psychopathy, such as the person not seeming to care whether they are posting provocative or toxic content. Psychopaths have something called a "resistance to chaos," which means they do not get wound up by drama. In fact, they sometimes thrive on the fact they are causing other people stress and discomfort.
But there are more subtle signs too. According to one study of 6,724 participants, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, people who score high in psychopathy personality tests often write posts relating to their own needs and satisfaction. They also tended to write more posts about authority-related issues and politics.
The authors of the study offered two explanations for the focus on politics.
"One interpretation is that psychopathic individuals are attracted to these topics because they revolve around issues of power, authority, and conflict that they might find particularly attractive," the authors wrote.
"In addition, these topics on social media are often rife with conflict and may provide a venue for aggressive online behaviours that psychopathic individuals are prone to engage in."
The second explanation is that there has been high levels of exposure to inflammatory political material on social media, which could have "unleashed psychopathic tendencies in some individuals."
For example, do you have a friend who is always posting provocative political articles, even though they always receive a backlash? They could be getting enjoyment out of antagonising people. They might not believe in whatever they are posting, but they are too satisfied by the chaos they create to stop.