Why Is There Not More Incel Violence? The Male Sedation Hypothesis

Join Malcolm and Simone Collins as they explore the complex relationship between pornography, violence, and male psychology in modern society. This thought-provoking discussion delves into controversial topics such as:

* The "male sedation hypothesis" and its impact on societal violence

* The unexpected benefits of pornography in reducing sexual violence

* The potential dangers of the NoFap movement

* The role of video games and sports in channeling male aggression

* Strategies for healthy sexual development in the digital age

* The importance of creating safe dating environments for young people

* The future of relationships and dating in a technologically advanced world

Drawing from scientific studies, personal experiences, and cultural observations, Malcolm and Simone offer a nuanced perspective on these sensitive issues. Whether you're a parent, educator, or simply interested in understanding the complexities of modern sexuality, this video provides valuable insights and challenges common misconceptions.

Simone Collins: [00:00:00] that

Malcolm Collins: craziness is what provides them with the motivation to go talk to women where they could go to jail because they talked to her in the wrong way, where they could be shut down and socially shamed.

Going up and approaching somebody in a dating context is incredibly difficult and the line between the motivation you need to go up and approach a random woman who you're interested in and the motivation you need to shoot up your school, I think, is a much narrower line than many women in I feel

Simone Collins: honestly like in many ways shooting up a school is way easier.

Yeah, and that's the point.

Malcolm Collins: You need the guys to have this insane motivation

Chris Williamson's male sedation hypothesis proposes that Online virtual worlds, particularly pornography and video games, have a pacifying effect on young men who are struggling to find romantic partners or sexual partners. The key points of this hypothesis are, one, pornography provides a small dose of reproductive fitness cues

do. In the [00:01:00] studies where it showed higher rates of murder and stuff like that tied to single men, these are societies that completely ban porn and masturbation because they're Muslim societies mostly is where you're seeing this.

Simone Collins: One thing I kind of wonder is, is do you get the free radical problem or do you get essentially like risky young men in a society where porn isn't necessarily banned?

But where nofap is pervasive,

would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. I am excited to be with you here today. Today. We are going to do an episode that asks, why aren't there more mass shootings by themselves?

Simone Collins: I was really wondering this, like, we are recording this fairly close to when President Donald Trump was almost killed, got his ear shot through.

And I'm like, why are more people not doing this? If apparently it's so fricking easy. To go out with an AR and just shoot it as president. Like, why are people not [00:02:00] going out all the time? It's

Malcolm Collins: not just that. I mean, this is something that's been well studied and we've mentioned in previous episodes. If you look at polygynous societies versus monogamous, equivalent monogamous societies.

Right. Typically going to get way more like, like much higher rates of terrorism in the polygynous societies. And the, the, the question is why, why do you get higher rates of terrorism? Why even in monogamous societies get higher rates of terrorism as marriage rates go down which was a thing that was studied in Egypt.

They were looking at like during economic downturns where people couldn't pay the bride price more men would go unmarried and you'd directly get more terrorists. And the answer is an unmarried man. Has, you know, nothing to do with their time. Well, not just nothing to do with their time, but they have no vested interest in the social order as it stands.

So

Simone Collins: in other words, hormonally also, I would argue they're being told, go big or go home. Like you are genetically going to die. You might as well be dead. Biologically speaking,

Malcolm Collins: if they were in a tribe [00:03:00] and under the tribe's current order, there was no chance that they would ever get a partner. Then It made sense.

To risk your life to up in the social order of that tribe.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Or, you know, do something insane that could possibly when you were sexual partner and therefore, you know, biologically survive to the next generation. So your, your genes, your body, everything that you've evolved is screaming at you. As a male go big or go home.

So you're going to do increasingly risky things. So, although, you know, I will maybe push back on that a little bit, right? Because there's some mixed data on this, right? Like I understand that like testosterone is high when you're, when you're in a very like sort of competitive male environment, when you're not.

In a, a stable relationship, but then there's also some research that finds that male testosterone kind of plummets when you're on a losing streak. And there have been some theories.

Malcolm Collins: Testosterone. Yeah. Okay. No, this is not tied to testosterone. It's tied to desperation. [00:04:00] Actually, many of these guys by the biology that we are very low testosterone, which is why they're in testosterone in that moment.

Yeah. This is different than a testosterone driven, go big or go home. Push. Okay. This is a

Simone Collins: An existential. An existential thing.

Malcolm Collins: Like it's, it's worse destroying society because it's not working for me.

Simone Collins: And actually there was

Malcolm Collins: a paper on this just last year. It came out in 2023 and it was titled, why isn't there more incel violence?

Simone Collins: Oh,

Malcolm Collins: okay. And I'm going to put it on the screen here. Asking the good

Simone Collins: questions.

Malcolm Collins: Thanks guys. And Chris Williamson actually is, is, is famous for having a theory on this. Yeah, yeah. The anti incel. Friend of the show. We've yeah, I, you know, we talk to him occasionally. I've been on the show. I'd really love to do it again sometime.

I, I, I find him, he's a fantastic online commenter. Whenever I hear him, I'm always like, yeah, you, you have good takes. A little vanilla for my, my, my perspective. But he's trying to

Simone Collins: speak to the everyman. You can understand.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's very much an everyman guy. So [00:05:00] anyway, this is what perplexity had to say about his, his take.

Chris Williamson's male sedation hypothesis proposes that Online virtual worlds, particularly pornography and video games, have a pacifying effect on young men who are struggling to find romantic partners or sexual partners. The key points of this hypothesis are, one, pornography provides a small dose of reproductive fitness cues, while video games offer status and community cues.

Two, These virtual experiences act as counterfeit fitness cues, meaning men feel as if their sexual needs are being met to some degree. Three, as a result, these online worlds reduce motivation for engaging in real life meeting effort and risky behavior associated with the quote unquote young male syndrome.

Four, t