Brandon Sparks

Pornography Consumption, Body Image, and Sexual Schemas Among Incel and Non-Incel Men Pornography functions as a sexual outlet and source of sexual knowledge for men. However, previous work has found it can have detrimental impacts on body image and self-esteem. Although involuntary...

Our (@robynkmooney.bsky.social) paper on pornography, body image, and sexual schemas among incel and non-incel men is officially out!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DRMSI...

Excited to announce that this paper has been accepted in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy! Great way to end the week.

💡 This is important as current philosophical debates on the use of AI to de-clothe persons centers around real and perceived personal or societal harms. Yet these results suggest that objections are more strongly related to violations of consent.

⚖️ Judgments were closely tied to consent-oriented values — showing that people weigh consent heavily when evaluating AI sexual content, even when images aren’t shared publicly.

📉 Key finding: AI-mediated nudifying was viewed more negatively than imagination-based practices. This suggests that deepfake creation raises distinct moral concerns beyond private thoughts.

(PDF) Where Is the Line? Perceptions of Victim Blame, Criminality, Harm, Morality and the use of Deepfake Nudifying Technology PDF | Artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly shaped our daily lives, including how sexuality is explored and sexual harms are enacted. This study... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...

📢 New Research Alert! Vasia Karasavva, Andres Montiel, and I explored perceptions of deepfake "nudifying" apps to answer the question: if used for personal use, are nudifying apps any different from using your imagination?
doi.org/10.13140/RG....

In short, femcels aren't just "lonely women," they exhibit a pattern of sexual distress that appears to be above and beyond the impact of singlehood

Interestingly, these variables were more tightly connected among femcels than other single women. Sexual preoccupation and perceived lack of control were strongly linked to distress *only* in the femcel group.

(PDF) The Sexual Well-Being of Female Involuntary Celibates (Femcels) PDF | Femcels (female involuntary celibates) are an online collection of women united by their shared frustrations in forming romantic and sexual... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ...

📊 New research on femcels and sexual well-being with @alexandrazidenberg.bsky.social

Femcels reported significantly:
⬇️ lower sexual esteem, satisfaction, and agency
⬆️ higher sexual preoccupation, anxiety, depression, and fear of sexual relationships

doi.org/10.13140/RG....

Shoutout to the team that helped make this possible @alexandrazidenberg.bsky.social, Chloe Papandreou, and Sarah Daly!

Why does this matter? Well, it reiterates what incels have been saying—inceldom is a circumstance—and emphasizes that many incels are after the same thing as everyone else—belonging and understanding. Judgment and ostracism got us here, it certainly isn't the solution.

(PDF) "There Must Be Something Wrong with Me:" An Exploration of Incel Identity Development PDF | The Netflix series Adolescence has dramatically increased the public's awareness about incels (involuntary celibates) and has even influenced... | Find, read and cite all the research you need o...

Another preprint hot off the press 🔥 Interviews with 12 incels found that social exclusion, loneliness, and knowledge-seeking trigger incel identity adoption—NOT extremist ideology.
doi.org/10.13140/RG....

However, the relationship between FOBS and these outcomes was not, as expected, due to time spent on dating apps or motives for using them; instead, dating anxiety may hold the key—FOBS may fuel dating anxiety, which is related to worse mental health outcomes

(PDF) Online Dating, Dating Anxiety, and Fear of Being Single PDF | The fear of being single (FOBS) represents an internal disposition wherein a person places a high value on being partnered, resulting in feelings... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

New preprint 📑: @jessmaxwell.bsky.social, @alexandrazidenberg.bsky.social, Arthur Woods, and I found that fear of being single (FOBS) is associated with more dating anxiety, lower self-esteem, and greater depressive symptoms in an online dating context
doi.org/10.13140/RG....

Attacked first thing on a Monday morning

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Life update: Excited to announce that next week I will be beginning my SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship with @ccjs-pr-campbell.bsky.social! Looking forward to this new chapter and to all the new research projects that lie ahead

It's worth noting that when designing this study, I consulted with an incel, who predicted this very thing. So thanks to him for getting me to include these expectation-related questions in this study

Take home finding: internalizing sexual schemas regarding one's own appearance and performance (that is, believing that women will expect them to look and perform like porn stars) is strongly related to body and genital image issues, which were higher among incels

(PDF) Pornography Consumption and Body Image Among Incel and Non-Incel Men: Implications for Well-being and Sexual Schemas PDF | Pornography functions as a sexual outlet and source of sexual knowledge for men. However, previous work has found it can have detrimental impacts... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

Hot off the press 🔥 @robynkmooney.bsky.social and I explored the relationship between pornography use and body image issues among incel and non-incel men.
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

If you weren't already losing sleep over the sample sizes in your studies, you should now! Check out this blog post on the importance Margin of Error plays study planning and what it means for your results!

The Jury is in: An Evaluation of an Experiential Court Assignment This study evaluates the effectiveness of an experiential learning assignment designed for criminology and forensic psychology students, requiring them to attend a Crown Court trial in the public g...

Hot off the press! Josh Bullock and I's Crown Court paper is now live in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education. Check it out here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Petition to have journals require authors clearly indicate revisions. Nothing better for a reviewer than "we have addressed this issue" statements with no indication in-text what has actually changed.

Conference 101

(PDF) The Jury is in: An evaluation of an experiential court assignment PDF | This study evaluates the effectiveness of an experiential learning assignment designed for criminology and forensic psychology students, requiring... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...

Excited to announce that Josh Bullock and I's paper on the Crown Court assignment completed by first year @kingstonuniversity.bsky.social Criminology and Forensic Psychology students has been accepted in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education! Preprint here:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

A poster that says "are you a femcel?" There is a QR code for the study

Do you identify as a #femcel ? You are invited to participate in our study. You will be asked to complete a survey on your mental health, attitudes, and experiences. If you would like to participate, click the following link: stfx.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #incel @brandonsparks.bsky.social

These incels deradicalised themselves — and now they’re trying to help others As Netflix’s Adolescence spotlights the dangers of incel ideology, we speak to three young men who’ve taken steps to steer themselves away from the manosphere

I was interviewed by Cosmopolitan for this, check ot out! Great work by Brit Dawson www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a...

This is absolutely nuts

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Excited to announce that our incel interview paper is now live in Current Psychology! Great job Chloe on a well-done dissertation
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Early Christmas gift: excited to announce that @alexandrazidenberg.bsky.social and I received a SoTL grant from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology to support our evaluation of an experiential prison cell assignment!