New report advises mental health support for 'incels'

Involuntary celibates, also known as 'incels', are a community of (primarily male) people organised around a perceived inability to attract sexual or romantic relationships. The community is overwhelmingly found online, in spaces where high levels of 'dehumanising misogyny' are the norm, according to research. 

There have been isolated instances of these views spilling into offline actions, however; Elliot Rodger's 2014 murder of six people is perhaps the most famous example. There has also been a steep rise in incel-related referrals to the government's Prevent scheme (which focuses on preventing vulnerable people from being drawn into extremism), while a 2023 review of that programme argued that the incel community should be dealt with using hate crime legislation. Others, however, see incels primarily through the lens of mental health, and suggest that therapeutic interventions may be the most appropriate.

Which approach is most appropriate is at the heart of a recent government report, authored by Swansea University's Joe Whittaker, William Costello, and Andrew G. Thomas. Exploring the development of the incel community in the UK and the US, how the community communicates, and what interventions may be most useful, the team concludes that mental health support – rather than a counter-terrorism approach – is likely to be more fruitful.      

To understand the community, the team recruited self-identified incels via social media, podcasts, and directly on incel forums. In total, 561 individuals from the US and UK completed a measure designed to explore any misogynistic or sexist views they held, their sensitivity to rejection, levels of displaced aggression (e.g. propensity for revenge), mental health, and loneliness. 

From these initial questions, a picture began to emerge. Incels showed above average levels of rejection sensitivity, imagining that even family and friends would reject them if they reached out. They also exhibited a high prevalence of misogynistic views, scoring particularly highly on measures of hostile sexism (overtly negative attitudes and behaviours towards women) and rape myth acceptance. Around 13.6% of incels reported a willingness to commit rape if they could get away with it – though the authors note that this figure is actually lower than rates in the general male population, where estimates lie between 19–35%. Self-identified incels were also particularly prone to thinking about and plotting revenge.          

There were also deep links between poor mental health and the incel community. One in five incels had contemplated suicide every day for the two weeks before taking the survey, and the group as a whole displayed high rates of depression and neurodivergence. Those with mental health problems were more likely to have developed harmful views – much more so than even those without mental health concerns who spent many more hours on incel platforms. 

Incels generally believed that they had a shared worldview, particularly identifying 'feminists' and 'the far left' as 'enemies'. Some went further than simply identifying enmity: 5% strongly endorsed the use of violence to defend the incel community and 20% 'sometimes' endorsed it. Despite identifying the far left as ideological enemies, the political orientation measure placed the group as politically centre-left (the exception was the 5% who endorsed violence, who were much more likely to endorse right-wing political beliefs). Future research could explore the complexities of political orientation within the community.        

Ideological issues are clearly important here: there was a strong sense of a community of men who shared a particular worldview. Yet mental health struggles emerged as a prominent influence throughout the team's investigations: as noted, even spending hours and hours on incel forums was not as influential on the development of harmful views as poor mental health. The team therefore suggests that a mental health approach may be more productive than a counter-terrorism one, ensuring "this desperate, depressed cohort of men... are integrated into society and given appropriate support".      

The report notes that the government's anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent, offers a tailored support package, including mental health interventions. But this may not be a foolproof solution: some have argued that referrals to Prevent can actually worsen mental health issues. Finding other channels for deradicalisation, as well as integrating knowledge about the incel community in other mental health support, may be another way forward.