Incel narratives: Deciphering and tracking the incel lexicon

Conference Year

January 2021

Abstract

Incels, involuntary celibates, are an online sub-culture of individuals who bear resentment towards women and society for their lack of romantic and sexual relationships. We identify terms in the Incel lexicon by comparing term frequency in Incel subreddits to term frequency in a randomly selected set of comments. To contextualize each term in the identified Incel lexicon, we produce a glossary of co-ocurring words that fills in the hidden meaning behind each term in the lexicon.

Primary Faculty Mentor Name

Peter Dodds

Secondary Mentor Name

Chris Danforth

Faculty/Staff Collaborators

David Dewhurst, Joshua Minot, Jane Adams, Chris Danforth, Peter Dodds

Status

Graduate

Student College

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Program/Major

Complex Systems

Primary Research Category

Social Sciences

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Incel narratives: Deciphering and tracking the incel lexicon

Incels, involuntary celibates, are an online sub-culture of individuals who bear resentment towards women and society for their lack of romantic and sexual relationships. We identify terms in the Incel lexicon by comparing term frequency in Incel subreddits to term frequency in a randomly selected set of comments. To contextualize each term in the identified Incel lexicon, we produce a glossary of co-ocurring words that fills in the hidden meaning behind each term in the lexicon.