Internet trolls can take different forms online whether in comment sections, on Twitter feeds or in chat rooms. They post varying degrees of malicious content, but they all deliberately intend to provoke an emotional response from their victims.

Over a quarter of Americans admitted to trolling behavior in a new study by YouGov. Less than half of Americans (45 percent) know the term troll, but 28 percent have participated in "malicious online activity directed at somebody they didn't know," according to the study.

"The vast majority of Americans - more than three quarters (77 percent) - think people are more likely to engage in trolling behavior under cover of anonymity," YouGov wrote.

Of the admitted trollers, 23 percent argued with someone else about an opinion and another 23 percent argued about a fact. Males participated in a malicious argument 12 percent more than women and millennials engaged in trolling behavior more than twice as much as those over 55 years old.

Chat boards, forums and image boards such as Reddit reported seeing the most troll behavior (45 percent). Social media and blogs see trolls at least once a week 39 percent of the time. Review sites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor see the least troll behavior (20 percent).

Almost half (49 percent) of American's troll behavior takes place on political topics. News/current events and religion topics also see high troll traffic at 38 percent each. Celebrity and sports round out the top five of topics with most trolling behavior.

Troll victims have taken several courses of action to stop an Internet troll. They either report the troll to a moderator or simply don't respond, but 14 percent of adults feel there is no efficient way to stop a troll.

YouGov surveyed 1,125 adults over age 18 between Oct. 10 and Oct. 13.