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The Angry Echo Chamber: A Study of Extremist and Emotional Language Changes in Incel Communities Over Time
Melissa S de Roos1, Laura Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová1, Alexis Hanna2
1Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
|March 22, 2024
Summary
Involuntary celibates (incels) express significant anger online, but their sadness levels do not increase after joining incel forums. This suggests incel ideology is adopted before online community engagement.
Area of Science:
- Online Subcultures
- Extremist Group Research
- Digital Sociology
Background:
- Involuntary celibates (incels) form a growing online subculture characterized by distress and anger.
- Incels exhibit traits similar to other online extremist groups, raising concerns about potential violence.
- Research attention has increased due to high-profile violent incidents linked to incel ideology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze linguistic changes in incel forum comments over time.
- To assess the impact of forum engagement on expressed anger, sadness, and extremist language.
- To understand the role of online forums in incel radicalization.
Main Methods:
- Collected comments from an incel forum over a 3-month period.
- Identified and analyzed comments from prolific users.
- Utilized text-processing software (LIWC) to quantify anger, sadness, and extremist language.
Main Results:
- Incels exhibit higher anger expression compared to users on platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter.
- No significant increase in sadness was observed among incels during forum engagement.
- Initial increases in anger, sadness, and incel vocabulary usage plateau over time.
Conclusions:
- Incel forums do not appear to be the primary site for incel ideology adoption.
- Radicalization and ideological embrace likely occur online prior to joining incel forums.
- Findings have implications for preventing online radicalization and informing future research directions.
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