The number of adult virgins is growing and is actually at a record high. Many of these folks would like to be having sex, but cannot find a partner. In other words, they are involuntarily celibate, or “incels” for short. So what do we know about these individuals? A deeper look at the psychology of incels reveals a group that is struggling with complex mental health issues.

In today’s episode, we’re revising my conversation with William Costello, which originally aired back in episode 133. This conversation will probably surprise you because it turns out that incels aren’t exactly who we think they are. Incels aren’t new either—they’ve actually always been around, but changes in the modern dating market seem to be creating a lot of more of them.

Some of the specific topics we explore in this episode include:

You can check out William’s body of research on ResearchGate. You can also read his latest paper on incels here.

Got a sex question? Send me a podcast voicemail to have it answered on a future episode at speakpipe.com/sexandpsychology.

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