Exploring Incel Language on Reddit
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
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.