A study at Swansea University found incels - or involuntary celibates - overestimated physical attractiveness and finances, while underestimating kindness, humour and loyalty.

The study's co-author Andrew Thomas said "thinking errors" could "lead us down some quite troubling paths".

He said mental health support was crucial, as opposed to "demonisation".

The term refers to a community, largely online, of mainly heterosexual men frustrated by their inability to form romantic or sexual relationships.

The idea dates back more than 30 years and was popularised by a website offering support for lonely people who felt left behind.

Study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2023.2248096

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[–] captainlezbian 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah maybe it’s just being a woman and a gay one at that, but I’ve been desperately lonely and confused why I couldn’t succeed romantically, but the thought of hating those who don’t love me back never made sense to me. I didn’t want revenge I wanted to know what I was doing wrong. And that really hits to the situation here. I’d never want to date someone who’d rather be rejected for being a cruel asshole than for being socially inept or ugly. Maybe they can change and I get that but it’s like dating someone who used to be really racist, it’ll take a lot for me to believe you’ve changed enough and then you add in that their bigotry was towards you and that it had impacts.