YouTube, 4Chan and Incels: Investigating the mechanism and process of indoctrination and radicalisation of misogynistic terrorists to inform formation

Addressing the timely issue of misogynistic terrorism perpetrated by members of the online subculture
self defined as incels, this much needed research investigates the link between widespread and
mainstream misogynistic structures that enable incel cultures to thrive, focusing specifically upon a
hypothesised mechanism of indoctrination and radicalisation.
Using a mixed methods constructivist design applied to an online ethnography, this thesis tests the
supposition that specific online media platforms, forums and commentators promote a misogynistic
ideology that convinces young men they are victims of a savage form of unjust persecution carried out
by the 'dangerous woman', leading to their indoctrination and radicalisation within niche misogynistic
online spaces that celebrate and advocate online and offline violence towards members of out groups,
specifically women and the men they see as responsible for their purported suppression.
Analysis of these spaces and individuals provides opportunity for the genesis of an intervention and
counter-narrative strategy seeking to advance an alternative perspective to identified misogynistic
narratives currently prevalent within mainstream and niche social systems of communication. Through
simultaneous analysis of the perpetrators of this type of ideological violence and the websites, online
commentators and communities that potentially facilitate the pathway to terrorist, it will be possible to
consider and develop on and offline interventions implemented at key sages of young male's lives to
combat the relatively unchallenged stream of misinformation, propaganda and coercive media
communication readily accessible within popular and increasingly frequented niche online spaces.