Radicalization within a network of misogynist extremists: a case study of an incel forum
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F25%3A10500173" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/25:10500173 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=HHHwxQ84U2" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=HHHwxQ84U2</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05161-8" target="_blank" >10.1057/s41599-025-05161-8</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Radicalization within a network of misogynist extremists: a case study of an incel forum
Original language description
Incels (involuntary celibates) are a group of people, linked to online misogyny and violent acts of terrorism, who mobilize around their inability to form romantic and/or sexual relationships. They have been shown to display signs of a violent extremist ideology. We conceptualize the ideology promoted by incels as misogynist and by bringing together different theories of gender and the gender order to formulate how the hetero-patriarchal and cisgenderist understanding of gender becomes an extremist worldview. We call this gender-based extremism misogynist extremism because misogyny is the most obviously violent structure of hetero-patriarchal gender order. Then, drawing on radicalization research and the social network analysis paradigm, we answer the research question: what are the communication patterns (network connections and actor attributes) that predict misogynist extremism among incels? We conduct our analysis on publicly visible posts from the forum incels.is, creating an undirected, unweighted network and then answering our research question using the auto-logistic actor attribute model to understand what individual attributes and network configurations predict user extremism. This study finds that extremists online form closed all-extremist communication triads. Consequently, they are significantly less likely to start new threads in the forum, suggesting that bonding social capital plays a more important role in an individual user's extremism than bridging social capital.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50401 - Sociology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/EH22_008%2F0004595" target="_blank" >EH22_008/0004595: Beyond Security: Role of Conflict in Resilience-Building</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)<br>S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
ISSN
2662-9992
e-ISSN
2662-9992
Volume of the periodical
12
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
9
Pages from-to
852
UT code for WoS article
001512194200016
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105008702247