Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Bridges, Ana

Committee Member

Scaptura, Maria

Second Committee Member

Cavell, Tim

Third Committee Member

Bayram, A. Burcu

Abstract

Pornography’s popularity among college men is widespread, with degrading content being common in top-selling pornography (Bridges et al., 2010; Foubert et al., 2011). Research has shown higher consumption of degrading pornography is associated with more negative attitudes towards women, greater acceptance of rape culture, more sexist beliefs, and greater likelihood of engaging in aggressive and dominant behavior during physical intimacy (Bridges et al., 2023). “Incels” (a term meaning involuntarily celibate) are individuals who have not yet had a sexual debut despite an interest. Relatively little research exists on this population, but the little that has been conducted suggests incels have a strong tie with the extreme right-wing movement through the shared values of “gun-ownership, homophobia, racist discourses and practices, and policies and laws aimed at ending women’s control over their reproductive health” (DeKeserdy, 2023, p. 6). The increased reliance on social media for news and the increasingly extreme content displayed on right-wing accounts are theorized to relate to the rise of incels. However, little is understood about how social media use, right-wing values identification, lack of sexual debut, and pornography use might collectively relate to violence against women. This study examines the potential mediating effects of sexist attitudes and incel traits on the link between right-wing media use and acceptance of violence toward women, and the potential moderating effect of violent pornography consumption on the relationship between sexist attitudes, incel traits, and acceptance of violence toward women. I hypothesized that (H1) higher right-wing media use would predict greater acceptance of violence towards women; (H2) the association would be mediated through sexist attitudes and incel traits; and (H3) the association would be moderated by the consumption of degrading pornography. Participants were 142 college men ages 18-23 at a large southern university recruited through introductory psychology courses. Participants answered a demographics survey and the following scales: Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Anti-Rape Attitudes Scale, Incel Trait Scale, a media consumption survey, and the Interest in Degrading Pornography and Non-Degrading Pornography Scale. Hypotheses were tested using bivariate correlations, t-tests, and path analyses. Analyses found that sexual inexperience was positively associated with feelings of defeat. Defeat was found to be negatively associated with right-wing media credibility and indirectly negatively associated with sexist attitudes. Both feelings of hatefulness and right-wing media credibility were positively associated with hostile sexism. Degrading pornography was found to have no moderating impact on results. Findings have implications for understanding potential mechanisms between media content and attitudes and expand prior studies by exploring how different media (right-wing social media use and degrading pornography) may interact to shape attitudes.

Keywords

Masculinity; Incel; Manosphere; Pornography; Sexism; Media

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