Robert C. Brooks, et al.
"Incel Activity on Social Media Linked to Local Mating Ecology" (2022)
"We predicted that high income inequality would amplify levels of incel activity. Inequality amplifies incentives to strive for economic mobility, not only for the sake of material wealth but also to achieve mating and reproductive success (Blake & Brooks, 2019; Oliveira Ramos et al., 2017; M. Wilson & Daly, 1997). Throughout history, resources and social status elevated reproductive success and child survival (Betzig, 1994; Cashdan, 1993), generating incentives for individuals to attain wealth and status through economic and social competition and via marriage. For men in particular, this dynamic has led to wealth and status becoming major determinants of success in marriage, mating, and reproduction in a wide variety of societies (Cronk, 1991; Hopcroft, 2006; Nettle & Pollet, 2008; von Rueden & Jaeggi, 2016). Large income differences among men can intensify women’s incentives to partner with a high-earning man or, if only lower-earning options are available, to remain unpartnered (Bergstrom, 1996; Blake & Brooks, 2019; Blake et al., 2018). Economically unequal environments also amplify competition among men, intensifying risky status-seeking and status-protecting behaviors and thus elevating rates of violent crime and homicide (Daly, 2016; Krahn et al., 1986; Oliveira Ramos et al., 2017; M. Wilson & Daly, 1985, 1997)."
"We predicted that places with more gender-equitable circumstances would have more incel activity. When men earn more than women, women enjoy a greater gain from marriage than they do under more equitable earning circumstances (Becker, 1981; W. J. Wilson, 1996). Couples are less likely to marry when the woman earns as much as or more than the man, and when a wife’s earnings rise to exceed her husband’s, the couple becomes more likely to divorce"
"hashtags and terms used largely or exclusively by incels were more common in commuting zones in which sex ratios were more male biased and income inequality was greater"
"Tweets about incels [emphasis mine to highlight distinction between this and "tweets by incels"] were more common in commuting zones in which sex ratios were more male biased, fewer women were single, income inequality was greater, and gender-income gaps were smaller"
"Tweets that use incel-specific terms or refer to the incel subculture emanated from places where demographic and economic factors are most likely to intensify mating competition among men. This was particularly true for the combination of male-biased sex ratios and high income inequality, but there were also significant effects of low percentages of single women and small gender gaps in income at the 50th percentile. Taken together, these results indicate that a local scarcity of women (especially single women), high income inequality, and small gender gaps in income—individually and in combination—are associated with more aggregate incel activity online."