Taking the black pill: An empirical analysis of the “Incel”.

“The “blackpill” describes a particularly bleak “ truth” to swallow; in this case, the belief that sexual attraction is mostly fixed and that there is nothing that incels can do to improve their romantic prospects (Glace et al., 2021).”

“However, incels simultaneously believe that their male status entitles them to sex and to the domination of women, thus performing a “hybrid masculinity” (Ging, 2017; Glace et al., 2021).”

“Research suggests that incels denigrate themselves and other men (Ging 2019; Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021; Pelzer et al., 2021), endorse racism, sexism, and violence against women (Baele, Brace, and Coan 2021; Chang 2022; Ging 2019; Halpin and Richard 2021; Menzie 2022; Nagle 2017; O’Malley, Holt,…”

“For instance, participants often speak of a lack of educational or employment opportunities (e.g., ‘NEET’ 1 ), financial difficulties (Jelodar and Fran 2021), or struggles with mental health and self-care (Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021; Jaki et al. 2019).”

“Extending this argument, Glace et al. (2021) found users of r/Braincels employed hybrid masculinities in strategic ways, including by distancing themselves from traditional masculinity, using social justice language and generating social boundaries against non-incel men.”

“…of ordinary men is thus often ridiculed by incels for being weak or desperate when they fail to meet the hegemonic standards of masculinity (Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021): they are described as “beta males,” subservient to Chads, who can only get sex through humiliating themselves when…”

“Appearances, lack of female interest, level of attractiveness and social ineptitudes were other recurring themes (Glace et al., 2021).”

“…was to analyze the manosphere’s discursive practices, identify critical categories of mem - bers’ narratives, and map the dominant rhetoric (Glace et al., 2021 ; Høiland, 2019 ; Horta Ribeiro et al., 2020a , b ; reaction to the ban on Reddit forums, particularly those subreddits identified…”

“Almost all incels consider themselves to be unattractive and hence disadvantaged due to their unattractiveness (Bratich & Banet-Weiser, 2019; Castle, 2019; Glace et al., 2021).”

“The group has gained notoriety as members have translated their violent misogyny (Glace et al., 2021; Ribeiro et al., 2020) into heinous crimes including mass murder (Hoffman et al., 2020).”

“Central to the incel belief system is the “black-pill” philosophy that there is nothing they can do to improve their romantic prospects (Glace et al., 2021).”

“The blackpill is defined in a number of ways across research (see, for example, Ging 2019; Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021; Preston, Halpin, and Maguire 2021).”

““ The black pill describes a particular worldview with a bleak perceived truth–the belief that sexual attraction is mainly fixed and that incels can do nothing to improve their romantic prospects (Glace et al., 2021).”

“…of popular incel forums on Reddit or stand-alone web-sites that have painted incels as violent and misogynistic (Baele et al., 2021; Ging, 2019; Glace et al., 2021; Helm et al., 2022; Jaki et al., 2019; Jones, 2020; Maxwell et al., 2020; O’Malley et al., 2020); however, due to the…”

“Our data present a complex picture of the coexistence of good, bad and indifferent masculine practices, similar to other research into other ‘toxic’ online spaces (e.g. on Reddit see Glace et al., 2021; Maloney et al., 2019), including even among incels (Daly and Reed, 2021; Thorburn et al., 2022).”

“However, given past research has found anti-Black racism on Incel forums (Glace et al., 2021), it is possible that almost all Incels are White and/or Asian.”

“Numerous studies have leveraged masculinity theory to examine incels (e.g., Glace et al., 2021; Menzie, 2022).”

“Sexual frustration can be profoundly shaped by social norms and gendered expectations (Ging, 2019; Glace et al., 2021; Scaptura & Boyle, 2020; Tranchese & Sugiura, 2021).”

“We see strong parallels between ressentiment and the inescapability of powerless victim-hood in the black pill ideology [48].”

“The emergence of the incel subculture has been linked with growing gender equality in Western societies, which has been perceived by some men as devaluing their role in society (Glace et al., 2021; Preston et al., 2021).”

“The manosphere hence shares this knee-jerk angry reaction to women and femin-ism due to a shared feeling of losing power and control over women’s bodies (Baele et al., 2021; Ging, 2019; Glace et al., 2021; O’Malley et al., 2022).”

“Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences 128 anti-immigrant sentiment, and punitiveness, which is consistent with other research finding a significant presence of misogyny, racism, and punitiveness towards outgroups (Ging, 2017; Glace et al., 2021; Preston et al., 2021; Speckhard et al., 2020).”

“While not all incels engage in racism, there have been documented instances of racism within certain sections of the incel community involving stereotyping, blaming minority groups, exclusion and segregation, hate speech, and pseudoscientific beliefs (Glace et al., 2021; Pelzer et al., 2021).”

“…is a primarily English-language online ecosystem of communities and advice-givers that are explicitly anti-feminist (Ging, 2017), and aspire toward hegemonic and traditional masculinities (Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022), deriding other enactments of masculinity as weak (Glace et al., 2021).”

“Scholars have examined incel social hierarchies in relation to hegemonic masculinity , emphasizing the hybrid and often contradictory masculinities within the community (Ging, 2019; Glace et al., 2021).”

“…of women for cis men, as well as a cluster of related grievances identi fi ed by scholarship on Incel such as the dissolution of norms around premarital sex, decreasing expectations of women ’ s monogamy, and women ’ s increased sexual agency (Glace et al., 2021; O ’ Don-nell & Shor, 2022).”

“…men create here also tend to rely on hybrid and fascist masculinities that reproduce assumptions of male superiority and misogyny (Ging 2019; Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021; Kelly and Aunspach 2020), as well as stereotypical and problematic dynamics of in-fi ghting and bullying (Jaki et al.,…”

“This research has primarily relied on qualitative and textual analyses of incel forums and other online platforms, revealing themes such as masculine entitlement, violence, women being naturally evil, and hostile sexism (Glace et al., 2021; Maxwell et al., 2020; O’Malley et al., 2022).”

“Research by Glace, Dover, and Zatkin (2021) provides similarly critical insights into motivations and influencing dynamics shaping identity within incel community spaces, defining pathways elucidating how incels construct identities in ways that complement and resist societal norms, underscoring…”

“…communities adjacent to Tate and his fanbase, such as those who identify as “ involuntarily celibate ” (i.e., incels), who describe taking an imaginary “ black pill, ” or waking up to the “ belief that men are actually the marginalized gender ” (Glace et al., 2021, p. 293; see also Ging, 2017).”

“The common point of these groups is to denigrate women, defend men ’ s oppression of women, promote violence, and create an image of victimized men (Glace et al., 2021).”

“If he chooses the red pill, he will wake up and see the world as it is beyond all ideological haze (Glace et al., 2021).”

“Finally, future research could further explore the role that gender-based online violence myths hold for male entitlement, specifically focusing on the processes by which men recognize (or fail to recognize) acts of harm as harmful (Glace et al., 2021).”

“Since the blackpill ideology attributes incels’ low status to immutable characteristics, it suggests that any individual improvement is futile and that incels should accept their low-status position [9–11].”

“In various online fora, incels also conventionally refer to women as ‘ femoids ’ or ‘ NPCs ’ (that is, ‘ non-playable characters ’ , as in video-games) (Bogeti ć et al. 2023; Chang 2022; Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021).”

“…norms on social media however can be narrow (Farrell et al., 2019; Ging, 2019) and perpetuate toxic expressions of masculinity that can inhibit healthy identity formation (Bozzola et al., 2022: Gültzow et al., 2020; Glace et al., 2021; Massanari, 2017; Parent et al., 2019; Scholes et al., 2025).”

“Rather than question restricting gender norms, they blame their experience on both themselves (Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021) and women and feminism (e.g. S. J. Baele, Brace, and Coan 2019; Chang 2022).”

“It is an even more radical and negative perspective compared to the more commonly known red-pill or blue-pill analogies derived from the famous trilogy The Matrix (Glace et al., 2021).”

“A newer trend, the Black Pill , suggests that misogynist incels believe that the appearance hierarchy cannot be overcome and for ‘ balance ’ to be restored, a new patriarchal order must be established (Glace et al., 2021; O ’ Malley et al., 2022).”

“Previous qualitative studies have found that suicide is a major theme on incel forums, with some users sharing their suicidal plans, and others sometimes encouraging them to pursue those plans (e.g., Baele et al., 2019; Cottee, 2020 ; Daly & Laskovtsov, 2021; Glace et al., 2021; Kelly et al., 2022).”

“Similarly, involuntarily celibate men or “Incels” also distance themselves from traditional hegemonic masculinity by embracing “beta male” status and victimhood as well as generally denigrating themselves as men when they fail to meet expectations surrounding masculine sexual prowess (Furl, 2022; Ging, 2019; Glace et…”

“Incels use the concept of ‘hypergamy’ to explain why they are left behind, asserting that women always ‘date up’ and seek partners more attractive than themselves (Glace et al., 2021: 292–293).”

“The extant work has largely examined communities as independent entities (Collins, 2024; Glace et al., 2021; Helm et al., 2024; Jones et al., 2020; Sykes and Hopner, 2024).”

“…blame for their inability to establish sexual or romantic relationships (Costello et al., 2022; Fontanesi et al., 2022; García-Mingo et al., 2022; Glace et al., 2021; Heritage and Koller, 2020; Lindsay, 2022; Petreca et al., 2024), manifest both through the creation and dissemination of content,…”

“This online subculture has experienced substantial growth in 2010s, attracting vulnerable individuals and fostering a narrative of resentment, entitlement, and perceived societal injustice [4], [5].”

“For example, incels commonly experience suicidal ideation and intent (Daly and Reed 2022; Glace, Dover, and Zatkin 2021; Moskalenko et al. 2022).”

“The result, documented across qualitative studies, is a worldview that combines the affective intensity of religious conviction with the structure of a closed conspiracy theory [ 13 , 19 ].”

“…tweets (Robert Brooks, Daniel Russo-Batterham and Khandis Blake 2022), threads within the blogs (Roberta O’Malley, Karen Holt and Thomas Holt 2022; Alyssa Glace, Tesla and Dover and Judith Zatkin 2021), or comments (Catharina O’Donnell and Eran Shor 2022); or write/produce literature reviews…”