Major new study to track the spread of Incel ideology online

Incels (short for ‘involuntary celibate’) are a misogynistic online community whose members blame women for their lack of sexual activity, and who have been linked to several incidences of terrorism over the last decade.

In one of 11 projects newly commissioned by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) in the UK, Dr. Debbie Ging from the School of Communications in DCU will work with Dr. Lewys Brace (PI) and Dr. Stephane Baele in the University of Exeter to create a comprehensive map of the online ‘Incelosphere’.

The project will track how this anti-woman ideology spreads across different digital platforms, such as Reddit, 4chan, YouTube, as well as dedicated forums. It will also identify the dynamics through which the most extreme ideas gain or lose traction within the Incel subculture, as well as analysing the geographical spread of the Incel movement, to evaluate its prominence in the UK and Ireland.

According to Dr Ging, ‘The rhetoric of the Incelosphere is becoming increasingly mainstreamed on platforms such as YouTube. This increases the potential for frustrated or socially marginalised men to become radicalised into its ideologies of misogyny and racism’.

This project will map the Incelosphere across multiple online platforms, analysing the content of discussions taking place there to understand how the movement has evolved. This is a timely piece of work as the Incelosphere has been exhibiting increasingly extremist and violent rhetoric. Platforms such as Reddit and web providers have shut down online communities for violating its hate speech terms and conditions. Despite these efforts, however, the Incel movement has diversified and spread across different digital platforms and into new geographical contexts.

Commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, CREST is funded by the UK’s Home Office and security and intelligence agencies to deliver a world-class, interdisciplinary portfolio of activity that maximises the value of behavioural and social science research into security threats. The Centre is led by Lancaster University, with significant input from the universities of Bath, Central Lancashire, Portsmouth, St Andrews and University College London.

The Director of CREST, Professor Stacey Conchie, said: ‘We have a fantastic set of projects that once again draw on a variety of methods and disciplines that are key to the success of CREST and the growth of our community. The projects promise to drive forward our understanding of topics as diverse as security interventions in public spaces to the prosecution of extremists. I look forward to seeing what the teams produce.’