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Narrative
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The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. First given a name by the boys at Penny Arcade, it is a theory that seeks to illuminate why people seem to degenerate into antisocial jerks online, when many are only mildly unpleasant in-person.
The equation, illustrated here
 is basically:
Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad
This phenomenon has been studied in an academic setting, and by all accounts PA's satirical analysis is spot-on; normal people seem to degenerate when they think that their behavior carries no real-world consequences. Hence the number of people who think that being a Troll is funny. The academic name of the phenomenon is the Online Disinhibition Effect, but even leading researchers use GIFT outside the trade journals.
In short: the relative anonymity of the internet allows people to be complete and utter bastard-coated bastards with bastard fillings. An extreme real-life example (and probably a cause) of this might be the Lucifer Effect.
The idea that anonymity and lack of consequences leads to irresistible corruption was proposed by Plato in The Republic where he recounts the myth of the Ring of Gyges, making it Older Than Feudalism. Perhaps better known is the book The Invisible Man which follows a similar premise but is more recent.
However, as Soul Coughing said, correlation is not causation: it should also be noted that people who genuinely are Jerk Asses in real life are more likely to hang out on the Internet, because, y'know, nobody who knows them would want to spend any time at all with them. There's still a greater chance that even actual Jerkasses will moderate their behaviour more in face-to-face social settings rather than online, if only because there's a greater chance of someone punching them in the face if they go too far in the former setting.
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