Why Chetan Bhagat was partially right about online trolls

Pop culture specialist, author and dance-show host Chetan Bhagat recently wrote an article titled Anatomy of an Internet Troll where he made sweeping generalisations about right-wing internet trolls or bhakts, in which he claimed:

1) Bhakts are mostly male.

2) They have weak communication skills in English, which leads to an inferiority complex of not being cool or sophisticated enough.

3) They are generally not good at talking to women which makes them sexually frustrated.

4) There is an overriding sense of shame about being Hindu, Hindi=speaking and/or Indian.

While I don’t agree with Mr Bhagat’s sweeping generalisations, the fact that men who abuse women online usually suffer from an inferiority complex isn’t completely untrue.

Online harassment of women is something we’ve talking about in recent times. Last month, news satirist John Oliver took on this issue, dissecting how threats are directed at any woman who voices an opinion online. So why do some men feel the need to be abusive towards women who assert their thoughts?

The answer stems from their inferiority complex. A study carried out at the University of New South Wales and Miami University by Michael Kasumovic and Jeffrey Kuznekoff, respectively, shows us the causal link between how men treat women and their gaming ability.

The duo observed 163 Halo 3 players and saw that no matter how the game went, men were usually cordial to other men while playing. Male players who were good also tended to compliment other male and female players.

However, the researchers saw that the male players, who were less-skilled at the game or performed worse compared to their peers, were likelier to make nasty comments about female gamers.

Kasumovic, one of the authors of the study, believes that this is the result of women disrupting the social hierarchy by appearing in places where they weren’t normally present in the past.

He wrote: “As men often rely on aggression to maintain their dominant social status, the increase in hostility towards a woman by lower-status males may be an attempt to disregard a female’s performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank.”

The researchers believe that young males should be taught that losing to women was not “socially debilitating”. On the other hand, video games were actually reinforcing gender segregation and promoting potentially sexist behaviour, which was troubling because most gamers are youngsters and were at a formative age.