‘Life of An Incel’: A thematic Analysis of Narrative Interviews With Incels

Abstract

This pilot study seeks to investigate involuntarily celibates (incels) in the theoretical framework of dialogical self-theory by examining the social- and psychological mechanisms that might enable the decision of young men to identify with the incel-worldview and subsequently be retained in the incel-identity. We focus on the group of moderate incels that run counter to the common conceptualization of incels as misogynistic extremists. This is essential as most of the incel-related research focuses on the minority of extreme members of the online community. In addition, the current literature on moderate incels, is limited and deficient. Using narrative interviews with incels, we aim to address this gap and provide more qualitative data to the field. We identify themes as a foundation for a narratively oriented thematic analysis from which our key finding indicates a pattern among the interviewees of incorporating other incels’ stories into their own narratives, resulting in what we have termed an ‘ultimate I-position’ which maintains the informants in their incel identity. Finally, we discuss how an increasingly interwoven world contributes to the birth of these communities and its cultures and how additional qualitative inquiry is needed to investigate the life experiences of incels and its online communities.