lennox
Ticking timebomb
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This study/analysis counters the belief that us incels are violent rapists. So what's in it? Give us the gist
Aren't incels a violent terrorist organization?
But incels are radicalized to share violent idealization, right?
Well what about Elliot Rodger? Don't we incels worship that guy's actions?
So what's all this talk about killing?
Are incels committing the vast amount of rape? Or is it just the average psycho doing it?
If incels could, they would rape, right?
Why aren't incels more violent and rapey?
In conclusion, incels are not violent and less likely to rape than the general population. The blame has been put on the wrong people.
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Contrary to common beliefs, empirical evidence
suggests that incels are not particularly prone to violence. Incels’ propensity for
violence appears relatively low compared to that of the general population.
Aren't incels a violent terrorist organization?
No, we're not dissimilar to the normal population in terms of the quantity of violence comitted.The author draws allusions to incel ideology and violent extremism. The empirical
evidence for such a link is less clear. Firstly, we must put the extent of incel violence
into context and compare it to other terrorist groups, as it has been suggested that
incels should be categorized as a terrorist threat (Hoffman et al., 2020). Reports now
number incel membership in the United States from around 40,000 (Beauchamp,
2019) to hundreds of thousands (Kutchinsky, 2019), and at the time of writing there
are ~20,000 active users of the main forum Incels.is. It is estimated that incels have
killed ~59 people worldwide (Hoffman et al., 2020). In contrast, the similarly sized
(~15,000 members) Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, has killed an estimated
350,000 people since 2002 (Amnesty International, 2015; Reuters, 2023).
But incels are radicalized to share violent idealization, right?
The incel study with the current largest sample size (n = 274) found that incel ideology was only
weakly correlated with radicalization. Most incels in the study (n = 219, 80%) actu-
ally completely rejected violence (Moskalenko et al., 2022). Another report from the
International Centre for Counterterrorism used LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word
Count) software (Pennebaker, 2001) to analyze language in incel, MGTOW (Men
Going Their Own Way), pick up artist, and right–wing forums. Just 1.39% of incel
posts could be categorized as legitimizing violence, the second lowest of the four
groups (Perlinger et al., 2023).
Well what about Elliot Rodger? Don't we incels worship that guy's actions?
Moskalenko et al. (2022) asked incels
(scored on a fivepoint scale, with 1 = “not at all”, and 5 = “very much”) about attitudes
relevant to Incel violence. The average incel score for the specific item “I admire
Elliot Rodger for his Santa Barbara attack,” was (M = 1.83; SD = 1.25).
So what's all this talk about killing?
It seems that the only killing incels do is to themselves. Sad!We concur with Lindner that the evidence suggests that extreme inceldom looks more like sui-
cidality than violence toward others. The two strongest correlates of male suicidal
ideation are, failure in heterosexual mating and burdensomeness to kin (de Catan-
zaro, 1995). Both factors are extremely salient for incels, many of whom report to be
NEET (not in education, employment, or training) and still living with their parents
into adulthood (Costello et al., 2022). The key point is that there does not seem to
be compelling evidence, despite a small number of highly florid cases that received
tremendous news attention, that incels are particularly prone to violence.
Are incels committing the vast amount of rape? Or is it just the average psycho doing it?
People already high in status and sexually successful are committing the rapes. Muh personality!Even in the high-profile cases of incel violence, however, there has been a conspicu-
ous absence of sexual violence. This is in line with the lack of support in the lit-
erature for the mate deprivation hypothesis of rape. Most men who commit acts of
sexual violence are not men considered to be low in mate value, but rather men who
are higher in status and power, already sexually successful, and can get away with
a sexually coercive strategy with fewer negative repercussions (Buss, 2021). High
profile examples include Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Jeffrey Epstein.
If incels could, they would rape, right?
Incels are less likely to commit rape. I attribute this to our senses of empathy and morality.A common measure used to ascertain men’s propensity for sexual violence is to ask about
their willingness to rape if you could get away with it. Contrary to the mate depri-
vation hypothesis of sexual violence, incels score significantly lower than the gen-
eral population in this measure. Speckhard et al. (2021) found that 13.6% of incels
reported some willingness to rape if they could get away with it. Conversely, ~35%,
~20–25%, ~19% and ~30% of men in the general population, respectively, reported
some willingness to rape if they could get away with it (Malamuth, 1981; Palmer et
al., 2021; Hahnel-Peeters et al., 2022; Young & Thiessen, 1992). In sum, even when
it comes to sexual violence specifically, incels do not appear to be more likely, and in
fact may be less likely, to commit it.
Why aren't incels more violent and rapey?
Coping is what's keeping us soft and sterile. Our sex happens in video games.Fleischman (2020) suggests that modern men may have their status striving mech-
anisms hijacked and undermined by online virtual worlds, such as video games and
pornography. Pornography may provide counterfeit fitness cues to men that their sex-
ual needs are being met, with lower costs compared to the anxiety inducing real-life
competitive mating market. Environmental cues suggesting that risky strategies are
unnecessary for reproductive success weaken the motivation behind these impulses.
This could be one explanation for the observed decrease in sexual assault rates asso-
ciated with the increasing prevalence of pornography (Kutchinsky, 1973, 1991; Dia-
mond, 1999; Diamond et al., 2011).
We offer one speculative hypothesis as to why there does not appear to be a cor-
responding spike in violence, both sexual and non-sexual, alongside increasing rates
of sexlessness. We propose what has been referred to in popular media as the Male
Sedation Hypothesis—that online worlds have a pacifying effect, perhaps by taking
the motivational edge off of engaging in real-life mate competition, on the potential-
ity for violence among sexless young men (Williamson, 2022).
In conclusion, incels are not violent and less likely to rape than the general population. The blame has been put on the wrong people.
Full link: