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A study at Swansea University found incels - or involuntary celibates - overestimated physical attractiveness and finances, while underestimating kindness, humour and loyalty.
The study's co-author Andrew Thomas said "thinking errors" could "lead us down some quite troubling paths".
He said mental health support was crucial, as opposed to "demonisation".
The study, pioneered by masters student William Costello, asked 151 incels and 149 non-incels from around the world about their own relationship preferences, as well as what they perceived women's were.
It found "thinking errors" which lead to an increasing likelihood of aligning with problematic ideologies and that incels make "fundamental errors about what females look for in a romantic partner".
The authors also claimed the study showed incels were younger, more ethnically diverse and more politically left-leaning than previously reported.
He said incels were also found to have lower standards for partners compared with non-incels than is widely assumed.
"There's not a lot of people going and speaking to incels and getting their voices in this," said Dr Thomas.
"People are saying that the reason that incels struggle to find relationships and sex is because their standards are too high, and what we were able to demonstrate here is, compared to our group of men that weren't incel, actually their minimum mate preferences were a lot lower.
"At least that's what they told us anyway."
He said incels struggled with "understanding the desires of the opposite sex" which could lead to things like "confirmation bias".
"Once you overestimate in your mind the importance of physical attractiveness to women, and underestimate the influence of kindness, you start looking for evidence that confirms that world view," he said.
There was also a tendency for incels to display mental health issues.
He said incel mental health was "through the floor", with 20% having daily thoughts of suicide and high levels of loneliness.
He said: "If you look at incels who have committed extreme acts of violence, a lot of the time when you scratch beneath the surface, they tend to either be pretending that they're incel, or it's not the number one factor motivating their actions."
The study's co-author Andrew Thomas said "thinking errors" could "lead us down some quite troubling paths".
He said mental health support was crucial, as opposed to "demonisation".
The study, pioneered by masters student William Costello, asked 151 incels and 149 non-incels from around the world about their own relationship preferences, as well as what they perceived women's were.
It found "thinking errors" which lead to an increasing likelihood of aligning with problematic ideologies and that incels make "fundamental errors about what females look for in a romantic partner".
The authors also claimed the study showed incels were younger, more ethnically diverse and more politically left-leaning than previously reported.
He said incels were also found to have lower standards for partners compared with non-incels than is widely assumed.
"There's not a lot of people going and speaking to incels and getting their voices in this," said Dr Thomas.
"People are saying that the reason that incels struggle to find relationships and sex is because their standards are too high, and what we were able to demonstrate here is, compared to our group of men that weren't incel, actually their minimum mate preferences were a lot lower.
"At least that's what they told us anyway."
He said incels struggled with "understanding the desires of the opposite sex" which could lead to things like "confirmation bias".
"Once you overestimate in your mind the importance of physical attractiveness to women, and underestimate the influence of kindness, you start looking for evidence that confirms that world view," he said.
There was also a tendency for incels to display mental health issues.
He said incel mental health was "through the floor", with 20% having daily thoughts of suicide and high levels of loneliness.
He said: "If you look at incels who have committed extreme acts of violence, a lot of the time when you scratch beneath the surface, they tend to either be pretending that they're incel, or it's not the number one factor motivating their actions."
Incels need more mental health help - Swansea University report
Research says involuntary celibate men make "fundamental errors" about what women want in a partner.
www.bbc.com
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