Predicting harm among incels (involuntary celibates): the roles of mental health, ideological belief and social networking.
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Executive summaryIncels are a sub-culture community of men who forge a sense of identity around their perceived inability to form sexual or romantic relationships.In recent years, there has been a small, but growing, number of violent attacks that have been attributed to individuals who identify as incels.The purpose of this study was to use a large sample of incels from the UK and US to establish (a) their demographic make-up; (b) the consistency of their attitudes and beliefs; (c) their adherence to a common world view, (d) how they network with other incels; (e) whether there are cross-cultural differences between incels from the UK and US in the above; and finally, whether there is a predictive relationship between incel mental health, networking and ideology and the extent of their harmful attitudes and beliefs. Key findings• Demographics: Incels were typically in their mid-twenties, heterosexual and childless.Though the majority of the exclusively US and UK sample were white, it was ethnically diverse, with 42% self-identifying as a person of colour.Most participants considered themselves from a middle class or lower middle class background.Most had some form of post-secondary school education and were either living at home or renting.• Mental health: In line with previous research, incels typically display extremely poor mental health, with high incidences of depression and suicidal ideation (one in three incels contemplated suicide every day for the past two weeks).• Attitudes and beliefs: Participants perceived high levels of victimhood, anger and misogyny.They also acknowledged a shared worldview among incels which includes identifying feminists as a primary enemy.• Neurodiversity: Approximately one-third scored above the cut-off of six (or higher) for a medical referral on the autism spectrum questionnaire (AQ-10).Around 80% of people who score 6+ on this measure go on to receive an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.• Political beliefs: Many commentators have suggested a link between incels and the far right.However, using Pew Research's "Ideological Consistency Scale", this survey found that incels were slightly left of centre on average.The exception was those who agreed that violence against individuals that that cause incels harm is often justified.These individuals were right-leaning, though not extremely so -they held right-wing opinions for 60% of the items in the Ideological Consistency Scale, compared to 45% of the items for the rest of the sample.• Approval of violence: When asked if they justify violence against people that incels perceive as causing harm (self-defined by participants) to them, around one quarter of the sample picked either "Sometimes" or "Often", while those who picked "Often" formed just over 5%.The average response sat between "Never" and "Rarely".• Predicting harm: By quantifying harm with a composite made up of measures of angry rumination, revenge planning, displaced aggression, hostile sexism, rape myth acceptance, and justification of violence, pathway analyses demonstrate the independent predictive roles of mental health, ideology and networking in incel-related harm.However, the predictive powers of Mental Health and Ideology were more than twice that of Networking.• Predicting justification of violence: Those incels who felt that violence was "Often" justified against those who harm the incel community were few (5%).These individuals
Source: Cronfa (Swansea University)
Authors: Whittaker, Joe, Costello, William, Thomas, Andrew G
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6941471568