project
Con.Cel: Tracking the online contagion of Incel and male supremacist ideology
1 October 2021 - 30 September 2022
PI/s in Exeter: Dr Lewys Brace
CI/s in Exeter: Dr Stephane Baele
Research partners: Dr Debbie Ging (Dublin City University)
Funding awarded: £ 96,000
Sponsor(s): Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST)
About the research
The Con.Cel project focuses on the InCel ideology, a misogynistic worldview whose proponents blame women for their lack of sexual activity, and the “Incelosphere”, a loose conglomerate of online InCel communities spread across various digital platforms. Specifically, it seeks to map out the online “InCelosphere” and, on that basis, track its dynamics of contagion along four key axes:
- Extremist contagion
- Online contagion
- Ideological contagion
- Geographical contagion