Andrew G. Thomas
@DrThomasAG
Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychotherapist. I research sex differences, mating psychology, and intersexual conflict from an evolutionary perspective.
The Times, Daily Mail, and others recently covered my views on social skills training for incels. Unsurprisingly, the headlines were clickbaity—some behind paywalls—giving a misleading impression of my position. So here’s a more accurate outline. thetimes.com/article/incels… [1/17]
Extreme poverty: How far have we come, and how far do we still have to go? - Our World in Data ourworldindata.org/extreme-povert…
Capitalism has been so successful at eradicating poverty, hunger, and hardship that it gave rise to a generation utterly detached from the realities of production, trade, and effort. They’ve grown up in comfort, surrounded by abundance, and instead of gratitude, they respond with…
Rejectees "experienced more depression, loss of self-esteem, and rumination." Rejectors "experienced the reputational cost of being perceived by others as cruel". "Women more than men reported experiencing negative emotions after a breakup." journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…
Categories of subreddits visited by people who posted on incel subreddits prior to 2022: 1) Memes and Teenagers 2) General interests 3) Manosphere and Relationships 4) Politics 5) Surprising or Interesting (e.g. oddly satisfying) 6) Gaming and Computers tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
It's true that unmet sexual, social, and self-esteem needs drive poor mental health in men. But labeling them as "masculine norms" is unhelpful. It diverts attention away from considering why these needs are present in every human culture ever studied. link.springer.com/article/10.100…
Lots of interest in polygyny following @Cobratate comments. Research from @DrThomasAG et al found that there was some interest in polygyny in the UK. 38% selected either “Yes” (24%) or “Unsure” (14%) & men were 4x more likely to be open than women were. psychologytoday.com/ie/blog/darwin…
Members of the Looksmaxx community (incels who focus on improving their looks) should "imagine new forms of masculinity that accept them as they are, rather than ask them to suffer for something that they might never become." pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11…
The precise relationship between mental health and incel beliefs is unclear. But there's some hints that poor mental health comes before engaging with incel forums. link.springer.com/article/10.100…
You love to see it. Our paper: Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: Evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents Coming soon, Open Access, in Nature's "Scientific Reports". Culmination of ~4 years worth of work.
Rebecca has swallowed the popular lie that men’s mate preferences are reducible to youth and physical attractiveness. While this describes some men, and these are important factors for almost all men, they are not everything. For most men, personality matters most when mating.
I don’t understand affairs like this. This guy has a woman at home, his wife and the mother of his children, who is not a careerist. She is also younger than he is. Then he cheats with an age-matched, high-powered boss bitch? I don’t get it. Blowing up your marriage and…
The perpetrators of incel-inspired homicides share some things in common: > Interpersonal challenges > Misogynistic outlooks and beliefs > Poor mental health and suicidal ideation > Socialize mainly online and the victim of bullying tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Spent half a day with @RossKemp last week being interviewed about my academic and clinical work. It's time for a more nuanced take. More coming soon.
For perspective: A fertility rate of 0.68 means a decrease in population size by 79% in just 3 generations.
As of 2024 the fertility rate in South Korea is 0.68 births per woman.
"low mating performance" findings raise the possibility that "those who indicated that they preferred to be single were actually single because they faced difficulties in attracting a partner" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14…
Self-control and grit are around 70% heritable, whereas academic skills are around 80% heritable. [Link below.]