Researchers analyze 3.7 million comments by incels, then let out a deep sigh and lie down for a bit

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A new paper published in the journal New Media & Society by a team of Canadian researchers examines some 3.7 million posts and comments from the regulars on the Incels.is forums, and it turns out that these dudes are really, really, really racist and misogynistic. I know, it’s a real shocker.

Obviously, one doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing when it comes to incels; all you have to do is spend half an hour poking around on Incels.is (or read a few posts by me on the subject). But it’s good to have research like this to document just how intense and pervasive this sort of hatred is in the incel subculture.

And the numbers are impressive. The researchers, led by Michael A. Halpin, an assistant professor of sociology at Dalhousie University, went through

every comment (N = 3,686,110) produced over 42 months on [Incels.is] and found that nearly all active participants use misogynistic terms. Participants used misogynistic terms nearly one million times and at a rate 2.4 times greater than their use of neutral terms for women.

Patterns in the numbers help to illuminate a good deal about how incels think and feel.

First, incels use the word “foid” more than any other misogynistic term, which labels women as uncaring machines, contrary to the qualities of empathy, compassion, and caring that are central to emphasized femininity … as incels label women as cold and heartless for denying them access to heterosexual sex. Second, incels’ use of “female” dehumanizes women by using an adjective as a noun … Third, while incels appear to rank order women, no group of women is valued. Incels might view “Stacys” better than “noodlewhores” or “landwhales,” but they are nonetheless described as “entitled whores.”

The researchers note that most of the participants in Incels.is discussions don’t seem to have learned their misogyny on the site; they bring their preexisting misogyny with them. As the researchers put it, “the majority of participants’ use of misogynistic terms does not increase or decrease with post frequency, suggesting that members arrive (rather than become) misogynistic.”

That said, it’s not clear to me that there is no radicalization going on; new commenters on the site may exaggerate their misogyny somewhat so as to fit in better with the crowd already there, and internalize this intense misogyny as they continue to read and comment on the site.

This may also be the case with their racism. The researchers note that

Incels’ misogyny is fused to racism, such that, while they situate all femininities [as] pariah femininities … Women of Color are doubly denigrated in relation to race and gender.

What may be a little harder to understand is why incels of color–and they make up a significant portion of the incel subculture–participate with such enthusiasm in this racialized misogyny, with Asian incels, for example, denigrating Asian women as “noodlewhores” and worse. The researchers

suggest that Men of Color in the incel community participate in racialized misogyny because it allows them to uphold unequal gender relations and participate in the denigration of all women. In this sense, such men prioritize unequal gender relations over other forms of domination.

And while incels see themselves as subordinate to other men, they use their supposed victimization as an excuse for their misogyny.

Drawing on Halpin’s (2022) conceptualization of weaponized subordination, wherein men strategically position themselves as “failed men,” betamales, or victims to justify their misogyny, we argue that incels do perform hybrid masculinity … Here, incels’ perceived subordination operates as a resource, allowing them to disguise their subjugation of women as retaliatory. We argue that such practices evidence how male supremacy is flexible and persistent, as incels and similar communities (e.g. Men Go Their Own Way) situate themselves as victims to endorse, advance, and excuse unequal gender relations.

Given the toxicity of incel racism and misogyny, the researchers agree that de-platforming incels may be an appropriate strategy–but they’re not confident it’s always effective, as “these men might simply migrate to other sites.”

They also put some hope in the prospect of “deradicalizing” those on Incels.is. Given that the overwhelming majority of commenters arrive at the site already deeply misogynistic, the researchers argue, “specific responses are necessary to disrupt such misogyny.” The approach they recommend is abbreviated ARCC, short for Agreeing, Refuting, Correcting, Challenging, and it’s worth examining in some detail.

Our first step is Agreeing with accurate knowledge claims. For instance, incels situate themselves as being exclusively aware of lookism as a form of social prejudice, when the impacts of lookism have been studied for decades … While agreeing with any incel claims might seem counterintuitive, we suggest that Agreeing establishes a frame for dialogue, disrupts incels’ claims of private knowledge, and dismantles rhetoric that frames incels as victims of censorship …. Second, we suggest explicitly Refuting incels’ justifications of their misogyny. While being unable to have a relationship is difficult, such difficulties do not legitimate incels’ misogyny, and many individuals encounter similar hardships without targeting others …

Third, we suggest Correcting claims that are based on accurate knowledge but that are interpreted incorrectly. For instance, incels are correct that an increasing number of men report being single, but they are incorrect that this is an exclusively male problem or that it can be blamed on women’s preferences for physically attractive partners. Fourth, we suggest Challenging incels’ incorrect claims. For instance, the incels.is wiki references many academic papers to advance misogynistic arguments. While appearing scientific, incels frequently cite single studies, ignore counter claims, or cherry pick examples, such as citing a study produced by Vagisil to body shame women … We suggest that all four strategies buttress each other and should be employed simultaneously to undermine incel misogyny.

In an interview with PsyPost, Halpin said that he and his fellow researchers were somewhat surprised by the intensity of the incels’ hatred of women.

Perhaps naively, we did not think that misogyny would be as common as it is. We suspected that misogyny might be the product of a vocal minority, whereas other users were not there to hate women but instead talk about the difficulties with being an incel. This was not the case in our data.

And it certainly hasn’t been the case in the various Incels.is posts I’ve read and written about over the years. This is why I’ve always argued against the notion that sites like Incels.is are somehow therapeutic for the men who populate them. They’re clearly not. If anything, they’re the opposite of self-help groups; they reinforce deep misogyny and encourage the feelings of hopelessness that cause incels to kill themselves and sometimes others. I say: shut them down–and perhaps try the strategies set out in the paper to bring some of these men and boys back from the brink.