Inside the link between narcissism and social media trolling: the involvement of malicious envy and exposure to antisocial media content

Considering negative psychological and other consequences of trolling on social media, the present study addressed the link between narcissism and social media trolling and its potential mediators, including malicious and benign envy and exposure to antisocial media content. Participants were recruited via an online crowdsourcing platform, Prolific, and 326 (aged 39.4 [SD = 12.4]; 48% male, 50% female, 2% non-binary or non-disclosed gender) completed our online questionnaire without attention-check failures. Our mediation analyses (controlling for covariates) indicated that malicious envy mediated the links of narcissism to social media trolling and to exposure to antisocial media content. In addition, exposure to antisocial media content also served as an additional mediator, as narcissism was linked to social media trolling indirectly through malicious envy and then exposure to antisocial media content. Narcissism predicted social media trolling directly, even after additionally controlling for the two mediators that were also directly linked to the trolling outcome. These findings provide practical implications, highlighting the importance of addressing the identified antecedents of social media trolling, and indicate future research directions to investigate additional associated factors and explore and develop approaches and interventions to reduce trolling on social media.