SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Personality Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1513719
This article is part of the Research TopicMental health and wellbeing of childrenView all 4 articles
Pathological Narcissism and Inceldom: Can the application of treatment principles of PN help reduce the rise of Incel-related incidents?
Provisionally accepted
- Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
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Involuntary celibates, henceforth known as incels, are individuals unable to secure sexual or romantic partners, resulting in feelings of anger towards women. Within the 'manosphere', incel radicals like Elliot Rodger are often idolised for perpetrating misogynistic terrorist acts.While interdisciplinary research within sociology, criminology and political science has surged, a significant gap remains in exploring underlying psychological contributors of incelrelated beliefs. There are notable parallels in the cognition, attitudes and behaviours between individuals with Pathological Narcissism (PN) and incels. Therefore, this systematic review explored the intersection between the two populations, to gauge whether intervention principles designed for PN might be applicable in mitigating incel-related beliefs and behaviours.A comprehensive search across multiple databases identified 12 studies, both quantitative and qualitative, that met the selection criteria. A narrative synthesis revealed emerging themes of sexual frustration, perceived male oppression, aggrieved entitlement and hegemonic masculinity.Future empirical endeavours should investigate whether the identification of PN in incels could serve as a predictive marker for incel-related radical beliefs and behaviours.
Keywords: Incels, Andrew Tate, Elliot Rodgers, Misogyny, pathological narcissism, aggrieved entitlement, Hegemonic masculinity
Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Akdag and Blakey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Acelya Akdag, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
Robert Blakey, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
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