Anti-Defamation League — Incels (involuntary celibates) backgrounder

What the study found

An Anti-Defamation League backgrounder on incels — the online subculture of "involuntary celibates" — records two beliefs common to the community. The first is the so-called 80/20 rule: the idea that the top 80 per cent of women only go for the top 20 per cent of men, leaving the bottom 20 per cent of women for the bottom 80 per cent of men. The second is the community's definition of hypergamy, understood as women seeking out men of higher status, either physically or financially, and rejecting all other men. ^[1]

the top 80 per cent of women only go for the top 20 per cent of men, leaving the bottom 20 per cent of women for the bottom 80 per cent of men

^[1]

Why it matters here

This backgrounder is a reference point for how the manosphere frames dating dynamics, not evidence that those dynamics hold up. The 80/20 rule and the incel reading of hypergamy underpin much of the community's worldview, so this source is cited on is the 80/20 rule of dating true? to establish what adherents actually claim before that claim is weighed against research. It is also cited on are incels a terror threat? as part of describing the beliefs that define the subculture. The document catalogues these beliefs; it does not endorse them.