Novo estudo investiga a psicologia do acasalamento de homens involuntariamente celibatários

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Novo estudo investiga a psicologia do acasalamento de
homens involuntariamente celibatários
⋮ 13/09/2023
Houve uma extensa cobertura da mídia sobre a psicologia do acasalamento de incels nos últimos anos.
No entanto, a maior parte do comentário tem sido especulativa, dada a falta de pesquisa empírica sobre
o tema. A primeira investigação formal deste assunto revelou que, ao contrário das narrativas
dominantes, os homens incel-identificantes relatam padrões mínimos mais baixos para preferências de
parceiros em comparação com homens não-incel, entre outras descobertas interessantes. Esta pesquisa
foi publicada no Journal of Sex Research.
“O tópico incel em geral me interessou porque encontrar e reter um parceiro representa problemas
adaptativos persistentes para os seres humanos. Os humanos modernos descendem de uma cadeia
evolutiva ininterrupta de ancestrais que resolveram com sucesso esses problemas. Alcançar objetivos de
acasalamento é tão importante para os seres humanos que afeta a saúde física e mental, o sucesso
financeiro e até funciona como um sinal social de status”, disse William Costello,
@CostelloWilliamestudante de doutorado de Diferenças Individuais e Psicologia Evolutiva no Dr.
Laboratório de David Buss na Universidade do Texas em Austin.
“Indicativo de quão preocupados os seres humanos estão com companheiros de atração é o fato de que
indústrias de bilhões de dólares são construídas em torno dele na forma de aplicativos de namoro,
escrevemos poesia e vamos à guerra por causa disso. Parece um tanto paradoxal, portanto, que há uma
comunidade crescente de homens que se identificam fortemente com sua incapacidade percebida de
resolver esses problemas adaptativos – os libados involuntários.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2023.2248096
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Costello-3
https://twitter.com/CostelloWilliam
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“Temos uma profunda história evolutiva de homens involuntariamente celibatários. De fato, evidências
genéticas revelam que, em cada geração, a maioria das mulheres se reproduz, enquanto apenas um
subconjunto de homens se reproduz (Betzig, 2012). Os incels modernos, no entanto, parecem únicos em
galvanizar uma identidade de vitimização compartilhada em torno de suas circunstâncias sem sexo e
sem companheiro.
“Apesar de a comunidade incel estar focada quase inteiramente em suas dificuldades percebidas no
acasalamento, e a especulação significativa da mídia sobre a potencial psicologia sexual e de
acasalamento de incels, a psicologia do acasalamento incel ainda não foi formalmente investigada na
literatura científica. Na verdade, há uma relativa falta de dados primários coletados de incels auto-
identificados em geral, provavelmente devido a incels ser um grupo de difícil alcance que suspeitam dos
motivos dos pesquisadores acadêmicos.
Perguntei a Costello o que pode ser aprendido estudando essa população específica. O pesquisador
disse: “O impacto da saúde mental de sentir que você não pode acessar relacionamentos sexuais ou
românticos. Sabemos que há muitas pesquisas mostrando que os relacionamentos melhoram a saúde
mental”.
Um total de 409 indivíduos foram incluídos nesta pesquisa. Os participantes foram recrutados através do
Facebook e Twitter usando a amostragem de bolas de neve nas mídias sociais. Costello também
anunciou o estudo no podcast “Incel”. Além disso, o estudo foi compartilhado com os usuários no fórum
Incel.is.
Este estudo centrou-se em homens biológicos solteiros. Aqueles que se identificaram como
heterossexuais, biologicamente femininos e não-incel foram mantidos para análises adicionais. Neste
estudo, foram incluídos 151 incel e 149 homens solteiros não-incel.
Participants completed a “reasons for being single” checklist where they ticked off items they believed
contributed to their singlehood. Of these, 9 items were external reasons (e.g., online dating), while 28
were internal reasons (e.g., fearing rejection). Participants also completed the Mate Value Scale which
includes four items assessing their opinions of their own general attractiveness as a mate.
In addition, they completed a questionnaire assessing their minimum standards for mates, for which they
indicated a minimum score between 1 to 10 a person would have to meet across 15 traits (e.g., humor,
intelligence) to be considered as a long-term mate. Participants also responded to these items from the
perspective of a woman. The researchers derived a composite score across the 15 traits. Lastly,
participants indicated whether they identify as an incel and completed a demographic questionnaire (e.g.,
education, employment status).
Costello broke down the results of their research.
“Our findings highlight extremely poor mental health, some cognitive distortions, a victimhood mindset
known, the disproportionate prevalence of autism spectrum disorder, poor mating intelligence, and dating
anxiety among incels.”
“Many people are understandably worried about incel violence. However, my supervisor (Dr. David Buss)
and I actually just published a theoretical overview of the scale of incel violence. The evidence suggests
https://www.psypost.org/2023/09/romantic-relationships-are-a-stronger-predictor-of-mental-health-than-vice-versa-184060
https://incels.is/
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-023-00220-3
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they are far more dangerous towards themselves than others. Given that sexless young men are typically
very violent and disruptive in society, it’s actually a puzzle why there is not actually MORE incel violence.”
“Our new work also confirms and dispels some stereotypes about incels,” the researcher told PsyPost.
“Unsurprisingly, incels have a low sense of their own mate value. But interestingly, evidence shows that
men are most inclined toward misogyny when they doubt their appeal to female partners and that
unwanted celibacy (independent of incel identity) predicts misogyny. The misogyny pervading much of
the incelosphere likely reflects a low sense of mate value. This means that helping incels improve their
own mate value and mating prospects would have the added benefit of reducing harmful instances of
misogyny.”
“A stereotype that our work dispels is that incels do not simply have too high standards as many
commenters suggest. A common narrative is that incels simply have too high standards. Evolutionarily it
would not be a good strategy for low mate value men to concentrate their finite mating effort on
competing with high mate value men for high mate value females. Our data show that incels had lower
minimum standards for mate preferences across every trait and overall. Incels do not appear to have
overly high mate standards compared to non-incel single men.”
“However, incels make fundamental mistakes in their perception of female mate preferences. Incels
UNDERESTIMATE the importance of qualities like intelligence, kindness & humor, and OVERESTIMATE
physical attractiveness & financial resources. ~Global prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is .62%
Yet it’s 18-30% for incels! People with autism have poorer theory of mind i.e., ability to infer the desires of
others. Incels’ failures of cross sex mind reading may reflect high levels of autism.”
He noted a caveat, “There may be some social desirability regarding the reported preferences of women
in our study. Specifically, around the importance of financial resources. Robust evidence shows that
women do indeed place a premium on financial resources in a mate. However, kindness, intelligence,
and humor are also extremely important to women.”
He added, “The vast majority of incels reasons for being single were internal (self-blame).”
What are incels’ top reasons for being single? Costello listed, 1) Not good at flirting, 2) Not good looking
enough, 3) Socially awkward, and 4) Too shy.
As for questions that still need to be addressed, the researcher said, “I think the important next steps are
for scholars to design and test some mental health interventions to help this at-risk group. I am also
interested in workingwith someone to dig deeper into the high rates of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
among incels (~18-30%). We should investigate why there is such an overrepresentation of men with
ASD in this community. What is it about incel identity that appeals to men with ASD?”
“It might also be interesting to investigate whether incels are accurate or inaccurate in their assessment
of their own mate value. There are reports that incels are seeking invasive cosmetic surgeries to improve
their physical attractiveness. It’s important to ascertain if this is based on a cognitive distortion or body
dysmorphia.”
This year, Costello was selected as the American Psychological Association Division 51 Society for the
Psychological Study of Men & Masculinities student of the year.
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The study, “The Mating Psychology of Incels (Involuntary Celibates): Misfortunes, Misperceptions, and
Misrepresentations”, was authored by William Costello, Vania Rolon, Andrew G. Thomas, and David P.
Schmitt.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2023.2248096