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- People on incel forums show much more anger than people on regular sites like Twitter or Facebook.
- Being around violent and hateful language a lot makes echo chambers where extreme ideas seem normal.
- Studies in psychology and brain science show that anger, not sadness, is the main feeling in these groups and makes them stick together.
- People don’t always become more extreme over time; many who join incel forums are already very radical.
- Just banning content might not work and could make people feel more alone, so caring, community help is very important.
Incel Forums: Do They Make Extremism Worse?
Incel forums have become a key topic when talking about extremism and radicalization online. These groups are hidden in parts of the internet that most people don’t see. In them, you hear a lot of bitterness, anger, and feeling left out by society. This is mostly among men who call themselves “involuntary celibates.” But how do these forums change, strengthen, or worsen feelings and beliefs? New psychology research is now showing how language and emotion change in these online places. This helps us better understand how radicalization happens online and what it means for people and society.
Who Joins Incel Forums—and Why Does It Matter?
“Incel” is short for “involuntary celibate.” It means people—mostly young men—who think they can’t find romantic or sexual partners even though they want to. The term started in online support groups, but it has turned into a cultural label with a complex and often harmful set of ideas.
Today, incel forums like incels.is have thousands of users who share their feelings of being alone, rejected, and hopeless. But these places often get very dark. The talks often go past personal problems to anger at women. In forum slang, women are called “femoids,” which is meant to dehumanize them. There is also extreme hatred of men who are successful or have sex lives, often called “Chads.”
But what’s worse is the emotional mood these platforms create. Normal online support groups usually show care for pain and suggest healthy ways to cope. But incel forums often turn sadness into rage, make bad ideas stronger, and add to the growing problem of online radicalization.
If we understand who joins incel forums, their psychology, and how they act, researchers and mental health experts can find ways people get into extreme beliefs. And maybe we can create ways to help them before they cause harm online or in real life.
What Psychological Patterns Are Seen in These Communities?
People on incel forums often build their identity around a fixed idea. They believe their failures with romance and sex are built-in, permanent, and decided by society. This hopeless view makes them see being an incel as a kind of social class. They think they are stuck there because they are not attractive, are socially awkward, or have brain differences. They believe these things stop them from having intimacy in today’s world.
Some key psychology signs seen in these groups are
- Learned helplessness: Many people say they think things will never get better. This makes them stop trying and feel more hopeless.
- In-group bias: Special words and slang help create a strong group identity. Words like “normies,” “Chads,” and “femoids” label outsiders as dangers or enemies.
- Projection and blaming others: They rarely blame themselves. Users often see women and society as set up to be against them.
- Reduced morals: Using violent, graphic, or dehumanizing language makes them less caring and less able to think about right and wrong.
What we first thought was wrong. The talk is not so much about sadness, but more about shared anger and bitterness. It’s a place that doesn’t just show pain—it turns it into a shared set of ideas that directs emotion outward.
Do Incel Forums Make Users Angrier? Research Shows
To see how emotions work in incel forums, a 2024 study by de Roos, Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová, and Hanna looked at over 135,000 posts from incels.is made between January and March 2022 (de Roos et al., 2024). They used computer tools to study the words to find emotional expressions in the language.
The researchers found something very clear. People on incel forums showed much more anger than groups from Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook used for comparison. Specific signs of emotion included threats of violence and often using extreme words like
- “stab”
- “rape”
- “gun”
- “femoid”
You might think these places would be mostly sad or grieving. But sadness was not much higher. Instead, anger was not just more common—it was central to how people talked in these forums. The forum becomes a place to show and get support for rage, not a place to heal or think deeply.
This fits with a bigger worry about internet extremism. When anger is shared and built up over and over, it becomes not just normal, but seen as morally right by the people involved.
How Does the Emotional Tone Compare to Other Platforms?
When we look at the emotional tone across different online places, incel forums are very different from sites like Reddit, Twitter, or Facebook. Those public sites do have some hostile talks, but they also have many kinds of talks, with room for humor, thought, or different views.
But in incel groups, the tone is more negative and the same everywhere. The study shows that
- Anger is the main feeling and stays over time.
- Violent comparisons are used in normal talk.
- Almost no different emotional stories are there to change the main mood.
These platforms reward posts that cause strong emotions (often with forum points, likes, and user praise). This makes emotional loops that make extreme feelings even stronger.
On sites like Facebook or Twitter, computer programs might raise up content that causes division, but users still see different kinds of interactions. Incel forums, however, on purpose keep their content separate. They ban anyone who disagrees and make shared hate stronger.
Do Users Become More Extreme Over Time?
People often think that the longer users are in radical spaces, the more radical they become. De Roos and colleagues looked at this by tracking user posts over time. They found that while anger and violent language went up a little over time, the users who posted the most were already using extreme words and strong emotions in their first posts.
This means two main things
- Many users are already emotionally and ideologically ready when they arrive.
- Incel forums act more like radical “growers” than radicalization paths.
These findings suggest that for many, being in these spaces isn’t the start of a bad turn—it’s continuing one that started somewhere else. This goes against the simple idea that incel groups are the cause of radicalization. Instead, they are places to strengthen and support ideas, echo chambers where beliefs harden.
Preexisting Emotions: Do Users Arrive Already Radicalized?
The study also showed that some users were using incel-specific words even before they were active on the forums. This suggests that incel ideas have spread far past these small groups. This could be through YouTube videos, Reddit sections, TikTok rants, and other less controlled parts of the wider internet.
Before joining incel forums, people may already be seeing content from the larger “manosphere,” including
- Pickup artist (PUA) groups
- MGTOW (“Men Going Their Own Way”)
- Red Pill and Black Pill idea channels
This wider exposure acts as a starting point to more structured groups, where held-in emotions are made to seem right through identity.
By the time users join incel spaces, they may already have strong feelings, be open to radical beliefs, and want to be supported—not questioned.
Are Incel Forums Just Echo Chambers?
Basically, yes—and this is what makes them so harmful to mental health. Echo chambers don’t just make opinions stronger; they change emotional reality.
Users mainly see content that agrees with their worldview. Computer programs or rules on incel platforms often remove disagreeing opinions, making sure there is little disagreement. Over time, this creates
- Confirmation bias, where people understand all new information in ways that support what they already believe.
- Groupthink, where agreeing with the group is more important than thinking critically.
- Moral divide, where being neutral or caring is seen as disloyal.
Emotionally, seeing dehumanizing content over and over turns on and overworks the amygdala, the brain’s fear/anger center. The brain’s thinking centers—the prefrontal cortex—become less important in making decisions.
This brain change has real effects, making it harder to change actions or help in real life.
How Does Language Support Radicalization?
Language on incel forums is not just talking, but making ideas stronger. Every word has hidden ideas about gender, power, and identity
- “Roastie” – A bad name for women seen as having many sexual partners.
- “Blackpill” – A hopeless belief system that says social and sexual results are decided by biology and can’t be changed.
- “Coping” – Used sarcastically to make fun of any try to make things better.
This kind of language breaks down moral limits against hate
- Violence becomes like a metaphor, then okay, then wanted.
- Hatred of women becomes an “intellectual view,” not just prejudice.
- Caring is seen as weakness.
Seeing this over and over makes complex parts of life simple: winners vs. losers, Chads vs. incels, justice vs. injustice. By doing this, it makes it easier to accept real-world violence.
What Happens in the Brain During Radicalization?
Online radicalization is a mix of biology, psychology, and social factors that changes thinking, behavior, and brain function. In incel forums, the brain process often goes like this
- Amygdala Activation – Seeing things that seem like threats (like stories of women rejecting them) makes people more alert and emotionally reactive.
- Prefrontal Cortex Suppression – With repeated involvement, thinking clearly and planning ahead decreases.
- Dopamine Loop Engagement – Posts that support a user’s anger or ideas cause reward feelings, making them want to be involved more in the future.
- Oxytocin-based In-Group Bonding – Being accepted and praised increases emotional loyalty to the group.
Over time, this changes how people process morals, relationships, and identity—leading to a hardened worldview that resists outside help, even from family or therapists.
Why Isn’t Sadness More Prominent?
The common idea of an incel is someone who is just sad and lonely. But data shows something different: anger is much more common than sadness in these groups.
This might seem strange until you think about the social job of emotion
- Sadness isolates, making people pull away.
- Anger connects, especially when shared against a seen enemy.
Incel forums reward anger with group praise, inside jokes, and being involved. Showing sadness without blaming society or women might even be made fun of. But rage gives a feeling of power and belonging—a dangerous mix with radical ideas.
What Does This Mean for Online Radicalization and Mental Health?
Given these emotional and thinking patterns, incel forums should be seen not just as places where extremism grows, but as warning signs of deeper social and mental health problems.
Key points for mental health experts and policy makers
- Emotional isolation, especially among young men, is a growing public health problem.
- Digital skills are key to helping young people see harmful online places.
- Prevention must start early, focusing on early feelings like being alone and low self-worth before they turn into hate.
These forums may not “make” radicals, but they turn feeling weak into ideas—and action.
Can Society or Therapy Help Disrupt These Patterns?
Yes, but only with full, caring ways. Some help includes
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for online situations, helping users look at their belief patterns.
- Peer-support mental health sites for young men with easy-to-get resources and relatable mentors.
- Computer program changes that value emotional variety instead of anger scores.
- Educational programs teaching strength, emotional knowing, and media questioning in schools.
The goal is to give other ways to find identity and belonging before anger becomes the main emotion.
What About Free Speech and Censorship?
Controlling hate speech brings up tricky ethical and practical problems. Banning forums can
- Push believers into more secret, uncontrolled groups.
- Make them believe even more that society is against them.
- Remove chances to watch or help.
But doing nothing is not okay either.
Good plans mix removing platforms with active support. Brain science suggests that emotional safety and social connection are key to changing radical thought. Young people need ways to feel seen—not just silenced.
A Mirror to a Hidden Crisis
Incel forums don’t just show a strange set of ideas; they are a mirror to problems we haven’t dealt with in masculinity, emotional learning, and loneliness. These online places may not create extremism, but they support and grow it—turning inner pain into shared hate.
The answer is not just controlling content, but making content: safe online places, caring education, and community-based mental health plans that give people deep in anger a way out.
If you’re a teacher, therapist, or researcher trying to understand harmful online cultures, or a young person dealing with them, know that other places exist. And your voice can help build them.
Citations
- de Roos, M. S., Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová, L., & Hanna, A. (2024). The angry echo chamber: A study of extremist and emotional language changes in incel communities over time. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605241239451
- Ging, D. (2019). Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Manosphere. Men and Masculinities
- Bail, C. A. (2021). Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Princeton University Press
