Research Symposium

BIO

Zionne Cummings is a freshman at Florida State University majoring in Media Communications. They aspire to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.

Incels and Firearms

Abstract

The word “Incel” is a portmanteau consisting of the words involuntary and celibate. Members of this
community form small online subgroups in which they discuss similar ideologies on topics such as
dating, women, and their lifestyles. Due to the violent nature of a lot of these conversations and the
declaration from many mass shooters that they belong to the incel community, they have a negative
reputation. This research project aims to analyze the discussions within these groups and whether or
not these intersect with firearm ownership. With the rise of mass shootings over the years,
researchers have noticed that often, the perpetrator will post their intentions of causing harm
online. This is usually done on social media apps such as 4chan, Twitch, Reddit, etc. In order to
better understand the behavior of this subgroup, we joined a multitude of these platforms with the
intention of recording conversations between the subgroups and noting the intensity of their
comments and the frequency of how much they occur.

Keywords: Incel, Firearm, Gun, Misogyny