Subscribe
The latest psychology and neuroscience discoveries.
My Account
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Neuroscience
  • About
No Result
View All Result
PsyPost
PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive Social Psychology

Incel forum users arrive angry—and their language gets more extreme over time

by Vladimir Hedrih
April 20, 2025
in Social Psychology
[Adobe Stock]

[Adobe Stock]

Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
Stay on top of the latest psychology findings: Subscribe now!

A study of prolific users on incel forums found that these individuals express more anger in their comments than users on other comparable social media platforms. However, they did not express greater sadness. The researchers also found that many users were already using incel-specific vocabulary when they joined the forum, suggesting that their exposure to incel ideology likely occurred elsewhere on the internet. The study was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Incels, short for “involuntary celibates,” are members of an online subculture who describe themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite wanting one. They refer to this condition as “inceldom.” This community is predominantly made up of men who express frustration and resentment toward those who are sexually active, particularly women and more sexually successful men.

Members of this group often describe feeling lonely and rejected. Conversations within incel communities tend to center on perceived personal unattractiveness, social disadvantages, and the belief that they will never find a romantic partner. Some incels attribute their difficulties to societal standards and gender norms, which they believe unfairly favor physically and socially attractive individuals.

The subculture has been associated with misogyny, with some incels promoting socially conservative ideas in which men control partner selection. The group has gained public attention in recent years due to violent acts committed by individuals identifying as incels or endorsing similar ideologies.

Study author Melissa S. de Roos and her colleagues set out to examine how prolonged interaction on an incel forum affects users’ language, particularly regarding expressions of anger, sadness, and violent extremist language. They hypothesized that the longer users participated in the forum, the more likely their language would reflect increased anger, sadness, and extremist sentiment.

To investigate this, the researchers collected data from the public section of one of the most active incel forums, https://www.incels.is. Using two Python libraries (BeautifulSoup and Requests), they scraped 100 pages of forum posts, each containing 100 posts, on the last day of March 2022.

They focused on comments made between January and March 2022, totaling 135,728 posts. From this dataset, they isolated comments made by users who had posted at least 100 times during the period. These 166 individuals were classified as prolific users. The researchers then analyzed their comments for expressions of sadness, anger, and violent extremist language.

To detect anger and sadness, they relied on dictionaries from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool. The anger dictionary includes 181 words such as “hate,” “mad,” “angry,” and “frustrated,” while the sadness dictionary includes 134 words such as “sad,” “disappoint,” and “cry.” To assess violent extremism, they used a custom dictionary containing 174 words organized into three categories: verbs describing violence (e.g., “stab,” “kill,” “rape”), nouns for weapons (e.g., “gun,” “knife,” “acid”), and nouns used to dehumanize out-groups (e.g., “femoids,” “roasties,” “curries”).

The researchers then compared the frequency of these types of language on the incel forum to typical language use on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.

Their findings showed that prolific users on the incel forum expressed significantly more anger than users on the other platforms. However, they did not express greater sadness. In contrast, violent extremist language—while rare or absent on the other platforms—was frequently present on the incel forum.

To explore how language changed over time, the researchers examined posts from users when they first joined the forum. They found that new users already displayed high levels of anger in their initial posts. Although expressions of anger, sadness, and extremist language increased slightly over time, the rise plateaued, suggesting no ongoing escalation.

These findings suggest that many users arrive at the forum already immersed in the incel worldview. The increase in extreme or emotionally charged language appears to stabilize rather than intensify with continued participation. The researchers believe this points to exposure and alignment with incel ideology happening elsewhere online, prior to forum membership.

“Our findings revealed that incels exhibited elevated levels of anger compared to other social media platforms. Additionally, a correlation was found between anger and the use of violent and extremist language, suggesting that anger may serve as a precursor to adopting extremist rhetoric. Furthermore, the findings suggest the possibility that individuals who join the forum often bring with them preexisting emotional distress in the form of anger and sadness, which is reflected in their forum posts,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the expressions of anger, sadness, and extremist views on an incel online forum. However, it should be noted that the study analyzed comments made in a very specific time period on one specific platform. Language use can change over time and it can be different in other online communities.

The paper, “The Angry Echo Chamber: A Study of Extremist and Emotional Language Changes in Incel Communities Over Time,” was authored by Melissa S. de Roos, Laura Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová, and Alexis Hanna.

TweetSendScanShareSendPinShareShareShareShareShare

RELATED

Passive scrolling linked to increased anxiety in teens, study finds
Anxiety

Passive scrolling linked to increased anxiety in teens, study finds

May 20, 2025

New research shows that teens who spend more than two hours a day on screens—especially passively scrolling through content—are more likely to report anxiety and emotional or behavioral problems, even when accounting for age, gender, and existing vulnerabilities.

Read moreDetails
Scientists identify distinct brain patterns linked to mental health symptoms
Moral Psychology

Your bodily awareness guides your morality, new neuroscience study suggests

May 20, 2025

Researchers found that interoceptive awareness—the ability to sense internal bodily states—predicts whether people’s moral judgments match group norms. Brain scans revealed that resting-state activity in specific brain regions mediates this relationship.

Read moreDetails
New research reveals aging shifts gender stereotypes in unexpected ways
Sexism

New research reveals aging shifts gender stereotypes in unexpected ways

May 19, 2025

A new meta-analysis challenges the idea that older women face “double jeopardy” due to age and gender. While younger and middle-aged women are viewed more positively than men, perceptions of older women and men appear to converge in later life.

Read moreDetails
New study upends decades-old narrative about Democrats and the white working class
Political Psychology

New study upends decades-old narrative about Democrats and the white working class

May 17, 2025

A new analysis disrupts decades of conventional wisdom: the white working class was not a reliable Democratic base in the postwar era. Instead, support for Republicans has been a longstanding trend dating back to the 1940s.

Read moreDetails
Surprisingly strong link found between neighborhood greenness and police shootings
Social Psychology

Surprisingly strong link found between neighborhood greenness and police shootings

May 15, 2025

A new nationwide study suggests that U.S. counties with more green space experience fewer fatal police shootings. The effect was strongest in urban and socioeconomically deprived areas, highlighting the potential public safety benefits of greener environments.

Read moreDetails
Political diversity in your social circle might come with a surprising trade-off
Political Psychology

Political diversity in your social circle might come with a surprising trade-off

May 14, 2025

People with politically mixed social circles may trust more of what they see on social media, including misinformation. A new study highlights an unexpected relationship between network diversity and belief in political content—true or false.

Read moreDetails
Twitter polls exhibit large pro-Trump bias — but these researchers have a fix
Political Psychology

Sharing false information online boosts visibility for Republican legislators, study finds

May 13, 2025

A new study reveals that U.S. state legislators who posted false or inflammatory content during times of political turmoil sometimes gained online visibility—especially Republicans spreading low-credibility claims. But uncivil language often had the opposite effect, particularly for extremists.

Read moreDetails
Left-wing authoritarians are less likely to support physically strong men as leaders
Authoritarianism

Left-wing authoritarians are less likely to support physically strong men as leaders

May 12, 2025

Do muscles make a man a better leader? That depends on your politics. A new study finds conservatives are drawn to strong men in leadership roles, while left-wing authoritarians are more likely to shy away from physical dominance.

Read moreDetails

SUBSCRIBE

Go Ad-Free! Click here to subscribe to PsyPost and support independent science journalism!

STAY CONNECTED

LATEST

What brain scans reveal about the neural correlates of pornography consumption

AI chatbots often misrepresent scientific studies — and newer models may be worse

Is gender-affirming care helping or harming mental health?

Study finds “zombie” neurons in the peripheral nervous system contribute to chronic pain

Therapeutic video game shows promise for post-COVID cognitive recovery

Passive scrolling linked to increased anxiety in teens, study finds

Your bodily awareness guides your morality, new neuroscience study suggests

Where you flirt matters: New research shows setting shapes romantic success

         
       
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and Conditions
[Do not sell my information]

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Cognitive Science Research
  • Mental Health Research
  • Social Psychology Research
  • Drug Research
  • Relationship Research
  • About PsyPost
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy