Noor Mian

Noor Mian

Buffalo State University

Research Proposal

Theories of PR

Professor Latrese Myers

Introduction:

Social media has had an impact on the way that issues are introduced and shown to the public. Agenda-setting theory explores what issues are given attention and what attitudes are shaped about the topic.  Issue salience displays how certain topics are prioritized, and impacts how the audience perceives their importance and how it impacts their viewpoints and beliefs. Cultivation theory expands on this by exploring how entertainment media distorts reality and how believing this false reality affects the public’s views and perceptions. Social media highlights those specific topics through their algorithms and shows the audience posts and videos that the audience might be interested in.  Salience is amplified as trending issues within the interests of the individual, along with hashtags and posts that elevate a topic’s importance which directs the focus over to that topic and shapes the public and audience’s views.  

“Incel” refers to “involuntary celibates,” which is a defining term for a man in misogynistic online communities that consider themselves unable to attract women, and are typically antagonistic towards women and sexually desirable men.  These forums are filled with self-loathing and anger, along with hatred of women and misogyny, which can fuel desires to commit violent attacks and murder. These men believe they are subordinate to other men, and view their unattractiveness as a means to justify their misogyny and hostility.  Social media provide gateways for incels to meet and create communities to spread misogynistic and incel content and further fuel their hostility. Agenda setting theory, along with cultivation theory and salience highlight how this incel behavior is normalized and encouraged in these online platforms, therefore shaping public perceptions of gender, misogyny, and societal roles. Social media plays a critical part in reinforcing these narratives by circulating content that aligns with incels worldview points, and creating echo chambers that perpetuate these ideologies, leading to violence and hostility.

Literature Review:

Agenda-setting theory and issue salience refer to how salience- repeated exposure of issues- shapes political debates, agendas, and outcomes (Paul & Fitzgerald, 2021). Over time, this theory has been extended from political issues to the application of multiple objects in the news, including candidates, organizations, and foreign nations.  The salience of objects and attributes in public relations messages can affect the salience of those elements in the media and public agenda (Kiousis, Popescu & Mitrook, 2011). Frames and attributes can be used interchangeably when dealing with the second level of agenda-setting theory.  The important distinction to make in this relationship is that agenda-setting theory tells the public what to think about while framing uncovers how the public should think about it (McCombs, Shaw & Weaver, 1997).  The cultivation theory expands on this by exploring how entertainment media distorts reality, and how the salience of issues displayed in television creates a false reality for the public who consume this content frequently. This is one of the effects of media-frequency content consumers believing that the worldview presented in media is more aligned with reality. General viewing compared to light viewing increased this tendency (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994). These theories can be expanded to other entertainment media including social media.

The incel subculture can be found on social media sites such as Reddit, 4chan, X and Instagram. The incel subculture emerged online when a queer woman, Alana, created a website in the early 1990s called ‘Alana’s Involuntary Celibate Project,’ which became a haven for sexually insecure and dating novices to converse in order to enter a romantic relationship (Beauchamp, 2019). Her motive was to help others who were unable to get into a relationship. After a few years, she realized she would not be able to help the people on the forum, and ceased her involvement. In the next 20 years, the group evolved with ‘men’s rights’ groups and mutated into a sphere of women-hating men, even advocating violence (Young, 2019).  As the extremism of these groups grew, so did their violent tendencies.  Incels are often praised for the cyberbullying and antagonization of women online.  This harassment includes doxing, threats of rape, and death threats (Young, 2019).  Increased online hostility is correlated with increased violence in the real world (Young, 2019). In their research, Dharmapala and McAdams found that online hate groups and the members violent tendencies led to positive reinforcement of violent behaviors, gave them an ‘opportunity for fame’, and became a motivating factor for members to express their hate in the real world (Dharmapala & McAdams, 2005). 

Self-proclaimed incels, such as Jake Davison and Elliot Rodger have committed murders and become ‘incel heroes.’  They are then praised in these online communities, which intensifies violent thoughts and misogynist terrorism. On August 21st, 2021, Jake Davison shot and killed 5 people, including a 3-year-old girl, before killing himself (BBC, 2021). Davison was very active online.  He posted videos about being socially isolated, stating his struggle to meet women, and referenced incels. On Reddit, 3 weeks before the attack, he discussed firearms.  Elsewhere, he posted on a subcategory for virgins, stating that he ‘can’t attract women at all’ (BBC, 2021).  His digital footprint included misogynistic content and anti-feminist attitudes.  According to Lewys Brace in his article on Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, the evidence indicates his engagement with his ideology had a significant role in shaping his worldviews (Brace, 2021).  

The term incel became well known after Elliot Rodger’s 2014 spree killing in Isla Vista.  Before carrying out the attack, he left a video and a manifesto-type autobiographical account detailing his “involuntary celibacy” (Brace, 2021).  The last words in this manifesto claimed that he is “the true victim in all of this.  I am the good guy” (BBC, 2018). Rodger was a frequent user of the website, PuaHate, and was hailed a hero by other users. On the same day after his shooting, a user posted that Rodgers was a hero, and went on to say “A hero on Puahate; and conclusions thereof,” (Glasstetter, 2014). He has been hailed an incel hero and inspired violence in the name of incels.  Right before Alex Minassian’s van attack in Toronto, he posted on Facebook a new status that stated “We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger” according to the BBC. Those who knew him described him as not a social person, but not seemingly violent (BBC, 2018).  He claimed to have been continuing what Rodgers started, an incel revolution ( van der Veer, 2020). Armando Hernandez Jr, a 20-year-old who shot and injured 3 people, is also a self-described “incel” and specifically targeted couples during this attack (Villareal, 2020).  He claimed to have been hoping to shoot 10 people and wanted to take his anger out on society, according to the prosecutor.

Proposed Research Methodology

My research objectives are to examine the role of social media in inciting this violence, with a look at specific social media platforms and their algorithms, specifically those that create echo chambers of misogynistic content.  I would focus on the cultivation effects of repeated exposure to incel rhetoric and how they affect the ways the audience views gender and societal roles, as well as how often their perceived reality aligns with the real world.  The identification of online violence vs offline behavior should also be studied, focusing on how their behavior correlates, and contributes to offline events. 

The methodology of this could be done in various ways.  IT would combine qualitative insights with surveys, focus groups, and interviews, and a quantitative understanding of social media content and algorithms.  Using a comprehensive combination of both could provide an understanding of how social media influences and plays a part in the real-life violence committed in the real world. A deep dive into online interactions, and the online community is equally important to understanding how social media plays into incel beliefs and attitudes. 

The first step would be the quantitative approach, following how often this content appears on social media, and what inspires it to appear.  This would be done by creating controlled accounts on websites such as Reddit, 4chan, Instagram, and X, and observing what is recommended.  Secondly, it is important to understand how these feeds evolve over time by observing how liking, commenting, or sharing affects the algorithm. Analyzing incel-related posts, hashtags, and videos on platforms such as Reddit, 4chan, Instagram, or X would be helpful in understanding how the algorithm elevates and frames this content, and how the algorithm prioritizes this content or creators of that content.

Surveys, focus groups, and interviews would also be helpful to see how these online views translate to real life.  Self proclaimed incels and those exposed to incel content would be asked to do interviews or surveys, to measure how this content changes behavior and influences their views on gender and societal roles. Understanding how self described incels behave around other incels, or around other people could be incredibly important in order to see what behaviors become red flags or warning signs of violent tendencies. Focus groups should conduct discussions with participants and delve deeper into the online influence of social media echo chambers and how the cultivation theory impacts their perceived reality.

Conclusion:

My research highlights the role social media plays in amplifying and perpetuating incel beliefs, and ideologies in order to foster an echo chamber and an environment that normalizes his misogyny and hostility, leading toward real-world, violent events. Through the agenda, setting theory, we understand how social media prioritizes gender roles, influences incel culture, and shapes public discourse. Cultivation theory further examines how prolonged exposure to these narratives on entertainment media such as social media distorts reality and instills harmful views of gender and societal roles in individual’s minds. By combining quality and quantitative methodologies, my research proposal seeks to understand the connections between social media algorithms, and the radicalization of self-proclaimed incels. I would like to do content analysis and algorithmic studies to provide insights into the mechanisms that amplify this content onto feeds and posts. Surveys, focus groups, and interviews will offer a deeper understanding of how these online interactions influenced real-world behavior, by talking to self-proclaimed incels, and those exposed to incel content. 

Ultimately, I seek to understand the importance of addressing the reasons that social media allows these ideologies to thrive and cultivate such a toxic community. This calls for a multifaceted approach in combining theories with algorithmic choices in order to combat online misogyny and trolling and understand the best ways to intervene before these online ideologies turn into real-life violence. By understanding the intersection of social media platforms, and incel violence, my research would seek to mitigate real-world consequences stemming from harmful online echo chambers. 

References:

Paul, H. L., & Fitzgerald, J. (2021). The dynamics of issue salience: immigration and public opinion. Polity, 53(3), 370–393. https://doi.org/10.1086/714144

Spiro Kiousis , Cristina Popescu & Michael Mitrook (2007) Understanding Influence on Corporate Reputation: An Examination of Public Relations Efforts, Media Coverage, Public Opinion, and Financial Performance From an Agenda-Building and Agenda-Setting Perspective, Journal of Public Relations Research, 19:2, 147-165, DOI:10.1080/10627260701290661

Price, V., & Tewksbury, D. (1997). News values and public opinion: A theoretical account of media priming and framing. In G. A. Barnett & F. J. Boster (Eds.), Progress in the communication sciences (Vol. 13, pp. 173-212). New York: Ablex.

McCombs, M.E., Shaw, D.L., & Weaver, D.H. (Eds.). (1997). Communication and Democracy: Exploring the intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-setting theory (1st ed.) pg 7-. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203810880 

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1994). Growing up with television: The cultivation perspective. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 17–41). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Young, Olivia, “What Role Has Social Media Played in Violence Perpetrated by Incels?” (2019). Peace Studies Student Papers and Posters. 1.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/peace_studies_student_work/1

Beauchamp, Zack. “The Rise of Incels: How a Support Group for the Dateless Became a Violent Internet Subculture.” Vox, Vox, 23 Apr. 2019, http://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/4/16/18 287446/incel-definition-reddit.

Dharmapala, Dhammika & McAdams, Richard. (2005). Words That Kill? An Economic Model of the Influence of Speech on Behavior (with Particular Reference to Hate Speech). The Journal of Legal Studies. 34. 93-136. 10.1086/425599. 

BBC. (2021b, August 13). Plymouth shooting: Jake Davison was licensed Gun Holder. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-58197414 

Sparks B, Zidenberg AM, Olver ME. Involuntary Celibacy: A Review of Incel Ideology and Experiences with Dating, Rejection, and Associated Mental Health and Emotional Sequelae. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2022 Dec;24(12):731-740. doi: 10.1007/s11920-022-01382-9. Epub 2022 Nov 17. PMID: 36394688; PMCID: PMC9780135.

Halpin, M. (2022). Weaponized Subordination: How Incels Discredit Themselves to Degrade Women. Gender & Society, 36(6), 813-837. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432221128545

Brace, L. (2021, August 26). A short introduction to the involuntary celibate Sub-Culture. CREST Research. https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/a-short-introduction-to-the-involuntary-celibate-sub-culture/ 

BBC. (2018, April 25). Elliot Rodger: How misogynist killer became “incel hero.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43892189 

Glasstetter, J. (2014, May 24). Shooting suspect Elliot Rodger’s misogynistic posts point to motive. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/05/23/shooting-suspect-elliot-rodgers-misogynistic-posts-point-motive 

Veer, R. van der. (n.d.). Analysing personal accounts of perpetrators of incel violence: What do they want and who do they target?. ICCT. https://icct.nl/publication/analysing-personal-accounts-perpetrators-incel-violence-what-do-they-want-and-who-do 

Villarreal, D. (2020a, May 23). Westgate suspect allegedly “incel,” tried to kill couples, prosecutor says. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/westgate-gunman-identified-incel-intended-shoot-couples-prosecutor-says-1505837 

Gentry, C. E. (2022). Misogynistic terrorism: it has always been here. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 15(1), 209–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2022.2031131Baele, S., Brace, L., & Ging, D. (2023). A Diachronic Cross-Platforms Analysis of Violent Extremist Language in the Incel Online Ecosystem. Terrorism and Political Violence, 36(3), 382–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2022.2161373