Exploring Incel Language on Reddit

Presenter's Name(s)

Kelly C. GothardFollow

Conference Year

January 2020

Abstract

Due to their anti-feminist views, coupled with thier glorification of violence, Incel communities have gained public recognition as a toxic online community. We study the comment activity over time of three Incel-associated subreddits, and use rank divergence as a instrument to investigate the Incel lexicon in one of these subreddits. By understanding the activity of the community and the language they use to communicate, we can identify markers that indicate the presence of this community in other forums.

Primary Faculty Mentor Name

Peter Dodds

Secondary Mentor Name

Chris Danforth

Graduate Student Mentors

David Rushing Dewhurst, Joshua Minot

Faculty/Staff Collaborators

David Rushing Dewhurst (Graduate Student Mentor), Joshua Minot (Graduate Student Mentor)

Status

Undergraduate

Student College

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Second Student College

Patrick Leahy Honors College

Program/Major

Data Science

Primary Research Category

Social Sciences

Abstract only.

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Exploring Incel Language on Reddit

Due to their anti-feminist views, coupled with thier glorification of violence, Incel communities have gained public recognition as a toxic online community. We study the comment activity over time of three Incel-associated subreddits, and use rank divergence as a instrument to investigate the Incel lexicon in one of these subreddits. By understanding the activity of the community and the language they use to communicate, we can identify markers that indicate the presence of this community in other forums.