The core traits of INCELS: Scientists identify 6 key characteristics

A new study has shed light on incels, and exactly why some men are more likely to become women-hating recluses. 

Psychologists in Spain conducted a review of scientific studies about incels – the growing online subculture of ‘involuntarily celibates’. 

They identified six key characteristics among this group – loneliness, rejection, low self-esteem, limited social support, and higher rates of anxiety and depression. 

Such feelings can trigger anger, aggression and violence while driving males towards likeminded communities online on platforms like Reddit, X, YouTube and TikTok. 

Researchers say it’s essential to address mental health issues that may be driving inceldom, which was famously explored in the Netflix series Adolescence.

Study author Reyes Rodríguez, a psychologist at the University of Córdoba, said incels have a ‘moral and emotional disconnection’ that justifies hate speech. 

‘Incels are mostly heterosexual men from diverse ethnic backgrounds, generally estimated to be between 18 and 30 years old, although some may be younger,’ she told the Daily Mail. 

‘They often hold misogynistic and racist beliefs rooted in hatred toward women, which they justify as a response to being rejected by women.’

Rodríguez and colleagues reviewed 82 peer-reviewed scientific articles related to incel subculture written in English and Spanish.

All research papers were published between 2017 and 2023, but most were published in 2022 as ‘incel’ was becoming a mainstream term. 

According to the review, incels can be defined by the language they use, their ideology, psychosocial traits and their tendency towards radicalisation (physical demonstrations such as rape and violence). 

Incels claim to be rejected because they are unattractive, have mental health problems (anxiety, depression), are neurodivergent (autism), or are socially inept.  

Young men and boys who identify as part of the incel subculture regard sex as a transactional act devoid of emotional ties, but also as a fundamental right that is denied to them as a result of feminism and female empowerment. 

Incels blame women for their inability to have relationships and some even contend that the denial of sex by women is a punishable crime. 

They also view heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation and that only men who conform to ‘heteronormative’ standards of masculinity – such as strength, aggression and emotional stoicism – are considered attractive. 

Another key part of the belief system is the 80/20 principle – the belief that 80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men. 

The study also explains the terminology incels use – akin to speaking in an exclusive code because members of the general public don’t generally understand it.

Women are commonly referred to as animals (as dangerous and dirty as pigs, cattle, snakes, and insects), food (‘roast beef’, inanimate objects (‘sperm containers’), and androids, cyborgs or humanoids. 

Incels use the term ‘femoids’ (female humanoids), to dehumanise them by turning them into a subhuman ‘on which to legitimately apply violence’, the study authors explain. 

More specifically, attractive, sexually successful women are known by incels as ‘Stacys’, while ‘Beckys’ are supposed to be normal or relatively attractive women. 

‘Chads’, physically attractive alpha male figures at the top of the male hierarchy, are also resented by incels and seen as part of the problem. 

Ranking below this alpha male category are ‘betas’ (men of average appearance and with the ability to maintain a relationship) and incels (males too unattractive to achieve sexual success). 

Incels believe that women take advantage of betas financially or for other reasons, and that betas end up being cheated on and used. 

Terminology is also borrowed from sci-fi film The Matrix – namely the concept of taking the red pill (being introduced to the incel culture). 

Members reach ‘black pill’ radicalisation where they become more extremist, developing a ‘static ideology in which violence is advocated and condoned’.

What’s bitterly ironic is that the term ‘incel’ wasn’t originally a negative one.  

It was coined in 1997 by a female university student in Toronto who’d created ‘Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project,’ a blog intended to provide support for individuals of all genders experiencing romantic and sexual exclusion.

It aimed to provide a stigma-free environment where people struggling with loneliness or difficulties in maintaining sexual or romantic relationships could share their feelings and find support from others in similar situations.

Alana’s original project was inclusive, empathetic, avoided violent narratives and sought to eliminate stigmas such as those surrounding virginity. 

However, after she relinquished ownership at the start of the 2000s, the forum gradually deviated, evolving into what it is today – a space dominated by men with a misogynistic ideology.

Today, incels glorify Elliot Rodger, a 22–year–old who penned a 137-page incel manifesto before killing six people and injuring 14 others in California in 2014.

Four years later, 25–year–old Toronto incel Alex Minassian carried out a deadly rampage that left 10 people dead and injured 16 others. 

Shortly before carrying out the attack, he posted a message on social media that drew widespread attention: ‘The Incel rebellion has begun.’ 

In 2021, British incel Jake Davidson went on a shooting spree in Plymouth, killing five people including a father and his 3-year-old daughter. 

The new study, published in Aggression and Violent Behavior, says most incels don’t engage in physical violence, but the ‘normalization of misogynistic and aggressive rhetoric’ online creates an environment where ‘violent fantasies and actions are validated’.

The study identifies several priorities for future research, such as the role of mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and neurodivergence. 

The team conclude: ‘There is a need to examine the pathways and mechanisms of radicalization, as well as protective factors that could mitigate risks of violent behaviour. 

‘Understanding how mass attacks are glorified within incel communities and how these acts are interpreted as symbols of grievance is also critical for developing strategies to counteract such narratives.’

What is an Incel?

‘Incel’ stands for ‘involuntary celibate’ and is a term used by a certain group of men who blame their inability to form relationships and have sex on women.

Incel groups have been accused of inciting violence and misogyny online and numerous communities and subreddits have been banned over their content. 

A cryptic Facebook message posted by Toronto suspect Alek Minassian just before the incident suggested he was part of an online community angry over their inability to form relationships with the opposite sex.

The now-deleted post saluted Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014.

Calling Rodger ‘the Supreme Gentleman’, the Facebook post declared: ‘The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!’

Chads and Stacys are names used in internet forums to denote people with more active sexual lives. 

The reference to the term ‘incel’, meaning involuntarily celibate, was a term used by Rodger in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically.

The anti-women sentiment also recalled Canada’s 1989 massacre at the Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering college in Montreal, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine entered a classroom.

He then separated the men from the women, told the men to leave and opened fire, killing 14 women before killing himself. 

In a suicide note, he blamed feminists for ruining his life.