Adult individuals frequently face difficulties in attracting and keeping mates, which is an important driver of singlehood. In the current research, we investigated the mating performance (i.e., how well people do in attracting and retaining intimate partners) and singlehood status in 14 different countries, namely Austria, Brazil, China, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and Ukraine ( N = 7,181). We found that poor mating performance was in high occurrence, with about one in four participants scoring low in this dimension, and more than 57% facing difficulties in starting and/or keeping a relationship. Men and women did not differ in their mating performance scores, but there was a small yet significant effect of age, with older participants indicating higher mating performance. Moreover, nearly 13% of the participants indicated that they were involuntarily single, which accounted for about one-third of the singles in the sample. In addition, more than 15% of the participants indicated that they were voluntarily single, and 10% were between-relationships single. We also found that poor mating performance was associated with an increased likelihood of voluntary, involuntary, and between-relationships singlehood. All types of singlehood were in higher occurrence in younger participants. Although there was some cross-cultural variation, the results were generally consistent across samples.
Incels (involuntary celibates) are a sub-culture community of men who build their identity around their perceived inability to form sexual or romantic relationships. To address the dearth of primary data collected from incels, this study compared a sample of self-identified male incels (n = 151) with similarly aged non-incel males (n = 378) across a range of measures related to mental well-being. We also examined the role of sociosexuality and the tendency for interpersonal victimhood as potential moderators of incel status and its links with mental health. Compared to non-incels, incels had a greater tendency for interpersonal victimhood, higher levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness, and lower levels of life satisfaction. As predicted, incels also scored higher on levels of sociosexual desire, but this did not appear to moderate the relationship between incel status and mental well-being. Tendency for interpersonal victimhood only moderated the relationship between incel self-identification and loneliness, yet not in the predicted manner. These findings suggest incels represent a newly identified “at-risk” group to target for mental health interventions, possibly informed by evolutionary psychology. Potential applications of the findings for mental health professionals, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
This is the second paper carved out of the lead author's MSc dissertation. In 2021, William Costello graduated with an MSc in Psychology, Culture, and Evolution from Brunel University London. Under the supervision of Prof. David P. Schmitt (co-author on this paper), his dissertation investigated the underlying psychology of incels (involuntary celibates). This paper focuses on the mating psychology of incels. Abstract: Finding and retaining a mate are recurring and fundamental adaptive problems for humans. Yet there is a growing community of men, called incels (involuntary celibates) who have forged a sense of identity around their perceived inability to solve these problems. Despite significant mainstream media speculation about the potential sexual/mating psychology of incels, this has yet to be formally investigated in the scientific literature, partly due to the “hard-to-reach” nature of this group. In the first formal investigation of incel mating psychology, we compared a sample (n = 151) of self-identified male incels with non-incel males who were single (n = 150) across a range of measures. We found that, compared to non-incels, incel men have a lower sense of self-perceived mate-value and a greater external locus of control regarding their singlehood. Contrary to mainstream media narratives, incels also reported lower minimum standards for mate-preferences than non-incels. Incels (and non-incel single men) significantly overestimated the importance of physical-attractiveness and financial prospects to women, and underestimated the importance of intelligence, kindness and understanding, loyalty and dependability, and humor. Furthermore, incels underestimated women’s overall minimum mate preference standards more generally. Further exploratory analyses showed that incels are significantly shorter in height than non-incels, which could act as a barrier to selection in the mating market. We also found that incels who use forums believe that participating in the forums made their opinion of women worse. Taken together, these factors could have a deleterious effect on their mating prospects. These findings suggest that incels represent a newly identified group to target for evolutionary-psychology-informed interventions. Such interventions could help challenge cognitive distortions around female mate preferences and improve their mating intelligence and overall well-being. Other implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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