Incels (and non-incel single men) significantly overestimated the importance of physical-attractiveness & financial prospects to women, &underestimated the importance of intelligence, kindness & understanding, loyalty/dependability, & humor

Costello, William, Vania Rolon, Andrew G. Thomas, and David P. Schmitt. 2023. “The Mating Psychology of Incels (involuntary Celibates): Misfortunes, Misperceptions and Misrepresentations.” OSF Preprints. April 3. doi:10.31219/osf.io/tb5ky

Abstract: Finding and retaining a mate are recurring and fundamental adaptive problems for humans. Yet there is a growing community of men, called incels (involuntary celibates) who have forged a sense of identity around their perceived inability to solve these problems. Despite significant mainstream media speculation about the potential sexual/mating psychology of incels, this has yet to be formally investigated in the scientific literature, partly due to the “hard-to-reach” nature of this group. In the first formal investigation of incel mating psychology, we compared a sample (n = 151) of self-identified male incels with non-incel males who were single (n = 150) across a range of measures. We found that, compared to non-incels, incel men have a lower sense of self-perceived mate-value and a greater external locus of control regarding their singlehood. Contrary to mainstream media narratives, incels also reported lower minimum standards for mate-preferences than non-incels. Incels (and non-incel single men) significantly overestimated the importance of physical-attractiveness and financial prospects to women, and underestimated the importance of intelligence, kindness and understanding, loyalty and dependability, and humor. Furthermore, incels underestimated women’s overall minimum mate preference standards more generally. Further exploratory analyses showed that incels are significantly shorter in height than non-incels, which could act as a barrier to selection in the mating market. We also found that incels who use forums believe that participating in the forums made their opinion of women worse. Taken together, these factors could have a deleterious effect on their mating prospects. These findings suggest that incels represent a newly identified group to target for evolutionary-psychology-informed interventions. Such interventions could help challenge cognitive distortions around female mate preferences and improve their mating intelligence and overall well-being. Other implications and directions for future research are discussed.