Replies to post #487321 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[newmedman]

well you are what we call in this neighborhood "stupid".. You can look up that word on your own time and give me the definition later, but you be you boss..

[DesertDrifter]

What an easy cure...get rid of the internet.

You first. Thank you for sharing that over the internet.

[blackhawks]

You have dug in your heels and continue to deny that it is a thing, despite copious evidence that contradicts your belief.

That it appears worthy of scientific inquiry also refutes your claim of insubstantiality.

I've excerpted from a more lengthy study.

The mental well-being of involuntary celibates

Thomas W. Delaney, Thomas V. Pollet, Clare Cook
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886923003975

Abstract
Incels (Involuntary celibates) are men who consider their lack of a sexual or romantic relationship key to their identity. We are continuing to learn about the low levels of wellbeing that exist amongst incels; the extent to which they differ in this respect from the general population and whether scales commonly used for psychological well-being can be used for this group.

Using a sample of 72 incels and 72 controls from the ‘open psychometrics’ dataset, matched for age and nationality, we examined the structure of a commonly used measure for Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS) using Structural Equation Modelling and independent samples t-tests.

We investigate if incels differ from a control group with regard to their mental health. Our analyses supported residual invariance, suggesting we could compare the groups. Incels were found to score higher on depression than controls, but the two groups did not significantly differ on reported anxiety and stress. We call for further work on incels, especially where clinically relevant measures are used.

4. Discussion and conclusion

We believe this brief study is amongst the first to examine the factor structure of the DASS and establish measurement invariance between incels and controls. The data supported residual invariance, implying that the means can be compared between incels and controls. Future work using the DASS is thus likely to recover its three factor structure in the incel population. Our findings also imply we can use the instrument to compare incels against other groups. Specifically, our results supported prediction 1, but not 2 or 3; incels scored significantly higher on depression than controls. This finding aligns with previous studies (e.g.,
Daly & Reed, 2022
) and the stereotypical view that incels experience depression. Incels did not significantly differ from controls in reported anxiety and stress.

A speculative explanation of these findings is that our incel participants may possess a cognitive style associated primarily with depression. Reduced imagery for positive events, specifically inability to imagine future mating success, seems a likely characteristic of those who subscribe to such forums, and is linked primarily to depression (
Stöber, 2000
). It is also possible that forum membership offers some protection against anxiety and stress but cannot counteract the depression associated with being unable to foresee a positive future. Indeed, acceptance of inceldom - as is suggested by forum membership – may bolster mental health whilst reaffirming the view that future mating success is improbable (
Ford et al., 2018
). Alternatively, the participants who self-selected in our study could differ from the wider incel community by scoring lower on anxiety and stress. Future research might investigate these and further explanations.

Our findings suggest that mental health interventions, primarily targeted at depression, could prove beneficial for incels. Given incels' reluctance to engage with mental health support (
Speckhard et al., 2021
), practitioners will need to develop outreach and intervention programmes that are palatable to incels; likely those that engage with and challenge, where appropriate, incels' depressive worldview (
Costello et al., 2022
).

There are multiple limitations to our study, for example, we relied on self-identification and have a modest sample size. Also, some DASS items loaded very poorly on their hypothesised factors. In future work it would be useful to further examine these specific items. Finally, our work is cross-sectional and we have not established test-retest reliability of the DASS or the stability of scores over time.

To our knowledge, our work is amongst the first to establish measurement invariance between incels and a general population group for a psychometric scale. We call for further work on incels and mental health. In particular, work with clinical measures and established measurement invariance. For now, we conclude that incels score higher than a control group on depression but do not significantly differ in anxiety or stress.

[sortagreen]

especially since it just doesn't exist without the internet. What an easy cure...get rid of the internet. That would also help with mental illness and puberty growth.

Well, it does exist, and it produces a great deal of violence, and you're not getting rid of the internet any more than you're getting rid of telephones or roads.

Are you saying, because you don't like the word, the devotees aren't real? Asshole.