EXTREMISMThe Rise of “Incels”
What happens when lonely men, embittered by a sense of failure in the sexual marketplace, find each other and form communities on the internet? The result can be deadly. Psychologist examines genesis of online groups of sexually embittered men, roots in evolutionary behavior, why some turn violent.
What happens when lonely men, embittered by a sense of failure in the sexual marketplace, find each other and form communities on the internet? The result can be deadly.
A new paper by Harvard psychology postdoc Miriam Lindner explores the rise of male “incels,” short for involuntary celibates, and their susceptibility to extremist ideologies and behaviors. Linder argues that despite a string of mass shootings and violent attacks by men espousing incel ideologies in recent years there has been a relative lack of research into the drivers behind the phenomenon.
Lindner uses an evolutionary psychology framework to understand the behavior of these men amid the accelerating social and economic shifts in gender roles and the ways the internet makes possible an “ecology where incel beliefs can thrive and make violence attractive.”
Essentially, Lindner finds these behaviors are rooted in those that proved to be most evolutionarily advantageous and so more likely to be passed along to a next generation. Our ancestors have, according to scholars, passed down a set of inherited tendencies involving male aggression and female selectivity of mates.
“An evolved male psychology makes them, on average, more likely to respond negatively to sexual aggression, and is inclined to coerce women, sexually,” Lindner said. “If we assume that that male psychology exists, we can see how the environment can amplify or dampen that.”
She went on to explain that while men might desire greater control over the selection process, the balance of power has shifted even more decidedly in favor of women. Female empowerment and medical advances (especially birth control), along with greater economic independence, means modern women have greater freedom to choose whom they want on their own terms, or even not at all.
“Women, now that we are in a position where we don’t need to rely on a man to be financially stable, we have that freedom to express more the types of attributes that we are looking for in a long-term partner,” Lindner said.
In fact, a significant percentage of women are choosing to be celibate or single. Lindner cites research by Anna Brown at the Pew Research Center, which found that, “Sixty-one percent of single men were looking for a relationship or dates, but only 38 percent of women reported doing so.”
All of these factors, paired with online dating — an environment that amplifies users’ perceptions of being desirable — have contributed to the rise of violent male ideologies.
