709
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Taking the “Black Pill”: Anomie, Perceived Social Death, and the Incel Phenomenon Online

&
Pages 770-785 | Received 30 Jun 2023, Accepted 21 Sep 2023, Published online: 26 Sep 2023

References

  • ADL. 2023. “Incels (Involuntary Celibates).” Retrieved June 1, 2023 (https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/incels-involuntary-celibates).
  • Baele, Stephane, Lewys Brace, and Debbie Ging. 2023. “A Diachronic Cross-Platforms Analysis of Violent Extremist Language in the Incel Online Ecosystem.” Terrorism and Political Violence (2023):1–24. doi:10.1080/09546553.2022.2161373.
  • Bargh, John A., Katelyn Y.A. McKenna, and Grainne M. Fitzsimmons. 2002. “Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the “True Self” on the Internet.” Journal of Social Issues 58(1):33–48. doi:10.1111/1540-4560.00247.
  • Besnard, Philippe. 1988. “The True Nature of Anomie.” Sociological Theory 6(1):91–95. doi:10.2307/201916.
  • Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Methods. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Branson-Potts, Hailey and Richard Winton. 2018. April 26. “How Elliot Rodger Went from Misfit Mass Murderer to ‘Saint’ for Group of Misogynists – and Suspected Toronto Killer.” Los Angeles Times, (https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-elliot-rodger-incel-20180426-story.html).
  • Charmaz, Kathy. 2010. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Los Angeles: Sage.
  • Chester, Andrea and Bretherton. Di. 2007. “Impression Management and Identity Online.” in Pp. 223–36 in The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, edited by Adam Joinson, Katelyn Y.A. McKenna, Tom Postmes, and Ulf-Dietrich Reips. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
  • Copland, Simon. 2020. “Reddit Quarantined: Can Changing Platform Affordances Reduce Hateful Material Online?” Internet Policy Review 9(4):1–25. doi:10.14763/2020.4.1516.
  • Costello, William, Vania Rolon, Andrew G. Thomas, and David Schmitt. 2022. “Levels of Well-Being Among Men Who are Incel (Involuntary Celibate).” Evolutionary Psychology Science 8(4):375–90. doi:10.1007/s40806-022-00336-x.
  • Daly, Sarah E. and Shon Reed. 2022. “’i Think Most of Society Hates Us’: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Interviews with Incels.” Sex Roles 86(1–2):14–33. doi:10.1007/s11199-021-01250-5.
  • Durkheim, Emile. 1951. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. New York, NY: The Free Press.
  • Eich, Eric, Dawn Macaulay, and Lee Ryan. 1994. “Mood Dependent Memory for Events of the Personal Past.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 123(2):201–15. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.123.2.201.
  • Fox, John W. 1990. “Social Class, Mental Illness, and Social Mobility: The Selection-Drift Hypothesis for Serious Mental Illness.” Journal of Health & Social Behavior 31(4):344–53. doi:10.2307/2136818.
  • Gais, Hanna, Michael Edison Hayden, Rachel Janik, and Megan Squire. 2023. “Allen, Texas, Killer Posted Neo-Nazi, Incel Content Online.” Retrieved June 1, 2023 (https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2023/05/08/allen-texas-killer-posted-neo-nazi-incel-content-online).
  • Ging, Debbie. 2017. “Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere.” Men and Masculinities 22(4):638–57. doi:10.1177/1097184X17706401.
  • Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. 2008. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction.
  • Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc.
  • Goldberg, Martin. 2021. Understanding and Overcoming the Blackpill. Middletown, DE: Martin Goldberg.
  • Guenther, Lisa (2013). Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives. University of Minnesota Press. 10.5749/j.ctt4cggj8
  • Halpin, Michael, Norann Richard, Kayla Preston, Meghan Gosse, and Finlay Maguire. 2023. “Men Who Hate Women: The Misogyny of Involuntary Celibate Men.” New Media and Society 1–19. doi:10.1177/14614448231176777.
  • Held, Sarah. 2023. “Incels: //Cheeks/Jaws: On Fragile Masculinity, Fatal Body Ideals, Homophobic Homoeroticism and National Socialist Aesthetics Revisited.” Fashion, Style and Popular Culture 10(10):147–66. doi:10.1386/fspc_00142_1.
  • Hilbert, Richard A. 1989. “Durkheim and Merton on Anomie: An Unexplored Contrast and Its Derivatives.” Social Problems 36(3):242–50. doi:10.2307/800693.
  • Hoffman, Bruce, Jacob Ware, and Ezra Shapiro. 2020. “Assessing the Threat of Incel Violence.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 43(7):565–87. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2020.1751459.
  • Hudson, Randy. 1999. “Organizational Anomie and Worker Consent.” Work and Occupations 26(3):292–323. doi:10.1177/0730888499026003002.
  • Jahanshahi, Asghar Afshar and Amin Dehghani. 2020. “Anomie at Public Organizations: How Can the Quality of Work Life Help?” Journal of Public Affairs 20(2): e1995.
  • Jones, F.Matt. 2016. “Anomie in the Oil Patch: A Preliminary Analysis.” International Journal of Rural Criminology 3(1):68–91. doi:10.18061/1811/78044.
  • Králáva, Jana. 2015. “What is Social Death?” Contemporary Social Science 10(3):235–48. doi:10.1080/21582041.2015.1114407.
  • Lewis, Helen. 2019. “To Learn About the Far-Right, Start with the ‘Manosphere.’” The Atlantic. Retrieved September 4, 2023. (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/08/anti-feminism-gateway-far-right/595642/).
  • Mann, Chris and Fiona Stewart. 2000. Internet Communication and Qualitative Research: A Handbook for Researching Online. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
  • Marche, Stephen. 2016. “Swallowing the Red Pill: A Journey to the Heart of Modern Misogyny.” The Guardian. Retrieved September 4, 2023 (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men).
  • Marsh, Elizabeth J. 2007. “Retelling is Not the Same as Recalling: Implications for Memory.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 16(1):16–20. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00467.x.
  • Nigro, Georgia and Ulric Neisser. 1983. “Point of View in Personal Memories.” Cognitive Psychology 15(4):467–82. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(83)90016-6.
  • Nind, Melanie, Andy Coverdale, and Robert Meckin. 2023. “Research Practices for a Pandemic and an Uncertain Future: Synthesis of the Learning Among the Social Research Community 2020–2022.” Journal of Social Research Methodology 2023(5):1–16. doi:10.1080/13645579.2023.2173842.
  • O‘donnell, Catharina and Eran Shor. 2022. “’this is a Political Movement, Friend’”: Why ‘Incels’ Support Violence.” The British Journal of Sociology 73(2):336–51. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12923.
  • Otto, Danny and Annegret Haase. 2022. “How the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts Social Scientific Research on Sustainability: Questions of Methodology, Ethics, and Justice: Comment on Santana Et. Al. 2021.” Sustainability Science 17(1):315–18. doi:10.1007/s11625-021-01066-y.
  • Pew Research Center. 2021. Social Media Use in 2021. Retrieved 1, June 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/
  • Puhrmann, Aaron, Christian A.I. Schlaerth, Elaine Bossard, and Rachel Setting. 2023. “Taking the ‘Red Pill’: Anomie, Social Disconnect, and the Incel Phenomenon Online.” Paper presented at the Midwestern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, March 24th, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Regehr, Kaitlyn. 2022. “In(cel) Doctrination: How Technologically Facilitated Misogyny Moves Violence off Screens and on to Streets.” New Media and Society 24(1):138–55. doi:10.1177/1461444820959019.
  • Rheingold, Howard 1993 The virtual community : homesteading on the electronic frontier (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.)9780201608700
  • Schacter, Daniel L., Scott A. Guerin, and Peggy L. St. Jacques. 2011. “Memory Distortion: An Adaptive Perspective.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(10):467–74. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.08.004.
  • Speckhard, Anne, Molly Ellenberg, Jesse Morton, and Alexander Ash. 2021. “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance Over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum.” Journal of Strategic Security 14(2):89–121. doi:10.5038/1944-0472.14.2.1910.
  • Spencer, Terry. 2022. July 27. “Jurors See Florida School Shooter’s Violent Internet Posts.” The Associated Press, (https://apnews.com/article/sports-education-florida-fort-lauderdale-parkland-school-shooting-f8e618be4dac517df9633eb6674b942b).
  • Stijelja, Stefan and Brian Mishara. 2023. “Psychosocial Characteristics of Involuntary Celibates (Incels): A Review of Empirical Research and Assessment of the Potential Implications of Research on Adult Virginity and Late Sexual Onset.” Sexuality and Culture 27(2):715–34. doi:10.1007/s12119-022-10031-5.
  • Taylor, Jim. 2018. “The Woman Who Founded the “Incel” Movement.” BBC. Retrieved February 18, 2022 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45284455).
  • Tosun, Leman Pinar and Timo Lajunen. 2009. “Why Do Young Adults Develop a Passion for Internet Activities? The Associations Among Personality, Revealing ‘True Self’ on the Internet, and Passion for the Internet.” Cyberpsychology and Behavior 12(4):401–06. doi:10.1089/cpb.2009.0006.
  • Tosun, Leman Pinar and Timo Lajunen. 2010. “Does Internet Use Reflect Your Personality? Relationship Between Eysenck’s Personality Dimensions and Internet Use.” Computers in Human Behavior 26(2):162–67. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.10.010.
  • Van Brunt, Brian and Chris Taylor. 2021. Understanding and Treating Incels. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780367824396.
  • Van Valkenburgh, Shawn P. 2018. “Digesting the Red Pill: Masculinity and Neoliberalism in the Manosphere.” Men and Masculinities 24(1):84–103. doi:10.1177/1097184X18816118.
  • Weber, Max. 2004. “Basic Sociological Concepts.” in Pp. 311–58 in The Essential Weber: A Reader, edited by Sam Whimster. New York: Routledge
  • Woodard, Alexandra, Christopher Wozniak, Christie Vargas, Mariapaola Gironda, and Rayme Silverberg. 2021. Incels: Inside the World of Involuntary Celibates. New York: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of New York.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.