Framing of Inceldom on incels.is: A content analysis

The complex worldview of Involuntary Celibates is known to involve a distorted reality, gendered hate speech and other harmful content. This study explores the subjective causes, emotional consequences of Inceldom expressed by Incels, and Incel behavior on incels.is. The Framing theory was applied to identify the mainly addressed and most interaction-inciting subjective causes of Inceldom (RQ1a and RQ1b), the mainly addressed and the most interaction-inciting subjective emotional consequences of Inceldom (RQ2a and RQ2b) and the mainly addressed and most interaction-inciting Incel behaviors on incels.is (RQ3a and RQ3b). A sample of N=600 thread posts in incels.is was subjected to a quantitative content analysis, by using a codebook based on deductive research and on the Hybrid Masculinities model. All content categories of the codebook were found to be reliable before application (Gwet’s AC1 >.80). Descriptive (frequencies, proportions and means) and inferential statistics (One-way Chi Square tests, z-standardization, ANOVA tests and post-hoc analyses) were applied to answer the RQs. Race/Ethnicity was the most addressed subjective cause (RQ1a), Hopelessness was the most addressed subjective emotional consequence (RQ2a) and Gendered Hate Speech against Women was the most frequent Incel behavior (RQ3a). Race/Ethnicity was the subjective cause that provoked the most interaction (RQ1b) and Claiming Lack of Masculine Traits, Adoption of SJL and Gendered Hate Speech against Women were the Incel behaviors that provoked the most interaction. Results for RQ2b were not significant (p>.025) Thread posts on incels.is addressed Race/Ethnicity and Hopelessness frequently. Incel Behaviors were clearer and more frequent. However, Incel discourse seems heterogeneous and contemplating many topics, causes and emotions outside the created instrument. An improved instrument and a bigger and better delimited sample should be considered for future research.