The DOI matches its Crossref record.
From “Incel” to “Saint”: Analyzing the violent worldview behind the 2018 Toronto attack
Abstract
This paper combines qualitative and quantitative content analysis to map and analyze the “Incel” worldview shared by members of a misogynistic online community ideologically linked to several recent acts of politically motivated violence, including Alek Minassian’s van attack in Toronto (2018) and Elliot Rodger’s school shooting in Isla Vista (2014). Specifically, the paper analyses how support and motivation for violence results from the particular structure this worldview presents in terms of social categories and causal narratives.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This is a departure from previous incel research examining community dynamics and discourse on more secluded forums and websites, where more overt ideological expressions, including mentions of and calls to violence and dehumanising language, were identified (Baele et al., 2019; Chang, 2020; Helm et al., 2022; Jaki et al., 2019).”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Baele et al., 2019
In the citing paper
“Confirming previous literature (Baele et al., 2019; Chang, 2020; Ging, 2017), the accounts aimed to expose women's privilege, unattractive men's victimisation at the hand of women and the immutability of the incel condition.”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Baele et al., 2019
In the citing paper
“Conversely, the blackpill is central to the incel belief system and claims that unattractive men are unable to transcend the confines of the social-sexual hierarchy that excludes them, and are forced to live in a state of doomed existence because of women's rejection and privilege (Baele et al., 2019).”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Baele et al., 2019
In the citing paper
“Blackpilled incels, however, vehemently reject the notion of improvement as they believe looks are genetically determined at birth, and thus, this attractiveness-based social hierarchy is immutable (Baele et al., 2019).”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Baele et al., 2019
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–246 of 246
Laplante, S., Labranche, A.-A., & Boislard, M.-A. (2024) · The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality · doi:10.3138/cjhs-2023-0050
“…members on incel forums express their hatred and desire to commit violence against women and that incel ideology in online spaces creates a dangerous echo chamber, where extreme views are validated (Baele et al., 2021; Bratich & Banet-Weiser, 2019; Farrell et al., 2019; Scaptura & Boyle, 2020).”
Canine courtship: Zoomorphism in Japanese Boys Love Omegaverse manga
Sarracino, C. H. (2024) · East Asian Journal of Popular Culture · doi:10.1386/eapc_00135_1
Krug, M. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5109001
Dokąd prowadzi królicza nora? „Skrzywdzeni” mężczyźni manosfery i przemoc wobec kobiet
Ścigaj, P. (2024) · Teoria Polityki · doi:10.4467/25440845tp.24.018.20714
Rüdiger, S., & Dayter, D. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009105194.010
Watson, K., Harden, S., & McKeon, G. L. (2025) · Australasian Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/10398562251351509
“12 It is postulated that the core drivers of this ideology are jealousy, misogyny, victimhood, fa-talism and entitlement.”
Kinssy, G. (2025) · Jurnal ISO Jurnal Ilmu Sosial Politik dan Humaniora · doi:10.53697/iso.v5i1.2682 · Cited by 1
La misogynie, leitmotiv des manifestes extrémistes
Padda, K. K. (2025) · doi:10.64628/aak.srgsfktp6
Existential Isolation and Incel Traits: Implications for Men’s Well-beingPreprint
Espinosa, M., & Cox, C. R. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5406296
From Egalitarian To Exclusionary: Profiling Youth Acceptance of Discrimination in the Digital Age
Coninck, D. D., Steeman, L.-L., & d’Haenens, L. (2025) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1007/s10964-025-02271-z
The Perfect Storm of Extreme Misogyny
King–Hill, S. (2025) · Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-03910-1_5
Nordås, R. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-06918-4_18-1
Being a “Rucel”: How Russian Incels Differ from Their Western Counterparts
Осколков, П., & Kennedy‐Kollar, D. (2025) · Deviant Behavior · doi:10.1080/01639625.2025.2595170
Krug, M. (2025) · Frontiers in Communication · doi:10.3389/fcomm.2025.1662590
Involuntary Celibacy in Adolescence: Psychosocial Factors and the Role of the Family
Güllü, B. Ü. (2025) · Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry · doi:10.18863/pgy.1760649
Rodal, A. B., Musso, I. R., & Castillo, G. P. (2025) · Historia y Comunicación Social · doi:10.5209/hics.103107 · Cited by 2
McGlashan, M., Aiston, J., Koller, V., & Krendel, A. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009382007.011
‘Life of An Incel’: A thematic Analysis of Narrative Interviews With Incels
Boldt, N. N., Burgdorff, N., & Lund, P. C. (2025) · Culture & Psychology · doi:10.1177/1354067x251411494 · Cited by 1
“This is critical in relation to the qualitative research of incels because most of it is based on internet ethnographies and analyses of forum posts (Baele et al., 2021; Halpin, 2022; Hintz & Baker, 2021; Maxwell et al., 2020; O ’ Malley et al., 2022) where a vocal minority might skew the picture.”
Threats to a Life Free from Violence
Deriu, F. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-09963-1_8
Automated Definition Generation for Online Jargon Analysis
Björnesjö, H., Borg, A. A., Cohen, K., Pelzer, B., & Wachtmeister, E. (2026) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-14107-1_43
Torres, A. M., & Morselli, D. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106440
Åkerlund, M. (2026) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/20563051261419384
“With little hope for change, suicide and vengeful acts of violence are encouraged within the most dedicated factions of the incel community (Baele et al., 2021), and as noted by Scaptura and Boyle (2020, p. 290), ‘[f]antasizing about rape and mass murder are stepping-stones to perpetuating violence…”
InfluentialExistential isolation and incel traits: Implications for men's well-being
Espinosa, M., & Cox, C. R. (2026) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2026.113723
How Social Media Connects and Divides Us: Psychological Insights and Paths Forward
Kubin, E., & McKeown, S. (2026) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.70067
Rhetorics of resentment: A rhetorical critical discourse analysis of incel discourse on ekşi sözlük
DEVRİM, N. (2026) · Opus uluslararası toplum araştırmaları dergisi · doi:10.26466/opusjsr.1804292
Of Lolitas and Jailbaits: An Exploration of Incel Discourse Surrounding Sex with Minors
de Roos, M. S., Ochodničanová, E. V., & Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová, L. (2026) · The Journal of Sex Research · doi:10.1080/00224499.2026.2636576
Rodríguez, Á. C., & Ferrín, M. (2026) · Political Research Exchange · doi:10.1080/2474736x.2026.2645803
Paths not taken: early history of incel communities, 1997–2014
Keum, B. M. (2026) · Internet Histories · doi:10.1080/24701475.2026.2663680
“A subset of Incels endorse misogynistic beliefs, attributing their “involuntary” status to women as gatekeepers of sex (Hart & Huber, 2026), justifying violence against women (Hoffman et al., 2020), and idolising mass killers as “saints” (Baele et al., 2021).”
InfluentialThe ‘toxic masculinity’ trap: misconceptions in the research on incels and violence
Biedermann, A. (2026) · Journal of Gender Studies · doi:10.1080/09589236.2026.2662327
Sugiura, L. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-52643-5_144-1
(2026) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-80686-647-220261009
When Single Meets Digital – Comparison of Self-Identified Incels and Other Single Men in PolandPreprint
Walczak, A., & Śmieja, M. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-9622875/v1
Incels: From the alleged theft of jouissance to a love frozen in the imaginary
Dureuil, S. (2026) · Psychoanalysis Culture & Society · doi:10.1057/s41282-026-00643-3
(2026) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-80592-845-420261010
Regan, L., & Mclocklin, G. (2026) · Journal of Criminological Research Policy and Practice · doi:10.1108/jcrpp-04-2026-0035
La teodicea incel: construcción moral del sufrimiento dentro del manifiesto de Elliot Rodger
Velázquez, M. R. (2026) · Estudios sobre las culturas contemporáneas (Colima) · doi:10.53897/revescc.2026.6.06
Reclaiming sexuality through violence? Italian incels, the Sex robot fantasy, and the ‘right to Sex’
Cava, A., & Pasciuto, F. (2026) · Sexualities · doi:10.1177/13634607261479987
Salihu, O. S. (2026) · The Journal of American Culture · doi:10.1111/jacc.70080
Understanding the Psychological Determinants of Incel Identity in Male Young Adults
Taufiq, M., Rehman, I.-U., & Zia, A. (2026) · journal of social sciences review · doi:10.62843/jssr.v6i3.740
Hith (2026) · Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression · doi:10.1080/19434472.2026.2724850
Vallerga, M. E., & Zurbriggen, E. L. (2026) · Sex Roles · doi:10.1007/s11199-026-01683-w
“…this occasional endorsement, some incels argue for a more systemic ‘distribution’ of sexual contact with women more akin to sexual slavery (Glace et al., 2021 ; Labbaf, 2019 ; Lavin, 2020 ; Witt, 2020 ), in addition to expressing a broadly positive disposition towards rape (Baele et al., 2019 ).”
Influential(2026) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-83742-892-220261009
Coufal, L., & Korpela, V. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1948952
De l’ America First à la post-Amérique : La mobilisation Groyper du 6 janvier 2021 au 6 janvier 2025
Rodriguez-Louette, S. (2026) · Revue française d’études américaines · doi:10.3917/rfea.188.0118
Metadata
- Authors
- Baele, S. J., Brace, L., & Coan, T. G.
- Affiliations
- Department of Politics, Centre for Advanced International Studies (CAIS), University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Venue
- Terrorism and Political Violence
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2019-08-02
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1667-1691
- ISSN
- 0954-6553 (ISSN-L)
- 1556-1836
- OpenAlex
- W2966605449
- Cited by
- 244
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 55 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 20
- FWCI
- 37.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Terrorism and Political Violence (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Health › Gun Ownership and Violence Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Keywords
- Elliot Rodger, political violence, causal narratives, social categories, support for violence
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
