New research has attempted to discover the origin of membership in the “incel” community. Reviewing over 8000 posts in two online incel groups, common themes that led to membership were revealed. Incel membership is related to a shared sense of perceived injustice and a method for increasing self-esteem through group membership.
The study was published in the journal Deviant Behavior.
The term “incel” blends the words involuntary and celibate, and is used as a personal identifier. Individuals identifying as incels have come together on the internet and developed theories about the origin of their incel status. These include the role women, minorities, and democracy may play in preventing their emergence into a world of non-incel individuals.
The authors of the new study, Roberta O’Malley and Brenna Helm, describe incel groups as “a popular subculture of men nestled within the online misogynist and male supremacist ecosystem.”
In ages past, the term celibate was associated with the religiously devout, children, widows, and those who had suffered catastrophic accidents. Today, some men who have failed to consummate any relationship, even after decades of trying, have turned to violent actions and beliefs as an outlet for their frustration. Incels have been connected to at least three mass shootings and have been identified as a male supremacist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
O’Malley and Helm recognized that reducing membership in incel groups may include understanding what motivates a man to get involved. The research team chose two incel forums, one from a large social media website and the second from an independent forum with 11,000 members. Posts from the summer of 2018 to January 2019 were sampled from these two forums.
Over 8,000 posts were mined from the two sites and analyzed. Posts were systematically coded to identify repeat ideas or statements. Those were then funneled into larger conceptual ideas like hopelessness or disconnection.
Through this analysis, O’Malley and Helm uncovered two significant themes, perceived injustice and a need to build self-esteem. First, analyzing the posts for evidence of the origin of these feelings of injustice, the researchers found “perceived injustices are rooted in ideals of gender inequality.” Incel members may feel on the outside of manhood while at the same time desiring male supremacy.
Second, those in an incel group may experience a boost to self-esteem if they perceive the group to be “knowledgeable, free-thinking, and not easily duped by modern society, which may feel positive in the face of overwhelming self-loathing.” The research team notes that these two factors did not operate independently as pathways to incel groups; they seem to both be necessary factors for incel membership.
Some limitations to the study were identified. First, the evolving nature of online communities may not reflect current membership factors. Second, posters are anonymous, and any individual post may not reflect the beliefs of the poster. Finally, researchers cannot speak to those participating in the forums, so some factors that predispose someone to membership may be absent from the data.
Despite these limitations, O’Malley and Helm feel any clues to the path to incel membership is important to the prevention of future violence, stating, “Although only a small subsection of incels may go on to perpetrate physical violence, the forum operates to solidify and interpret the world through a gender-extremist lens that is highly concerning. Specifically, incel forums encourage and promote violence to combat the injustices they perceive. Thus, incel forums are not innocuous spaces.”
The study, “The role of perceived injustice and need for esteem on incel membership online”, was authored by Roberta O’Malley and Brenna Helm.