Trolling... some further work by other people

Still fascinated by the spread and ubiquitousness of vitriolic trolling, I found these two articles today on the BBC News site, by Richard Bacon - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17399027#TWEET107116 - and Tom de Castella and Virginia Brown - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14898564 .

My friend and past colleague, Jack Yan, also pointed me to the existence of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade_(webcomic)#John_Gabriel.27s_.22Greater_Internet_Fuckwad_Theory.22.

However, I have not yet got to the bottom of this trolling mystery. Why is it such an attractive idea? Are we human beings seriously and naturally attracted to destruction? Or, in the act of destroying someone else, do we actually create identity? (Yes, we do...) But what then happens to that identity? Does it become permanent?

Richard Bacon says there is research that suggests perhaps 50% of the trolling is by people who know the target. I wonder how reliable that research is.