Roughly 16 percent of men say they feel lonely, while 15 percent of women say the same, according to 2025 data from the Pew Research Center. The difference is fewer men are willing to find help among peers and mental health resources.
Iowa is anecdotally seeing a trend of men with “incel” ideologies, which is reflected at the national level. The correlation between incels and threat assessment research has led the U.S. Secret Service to identify the group as a rising threat.
One of the most common links between mass shooters, violent extremists, and terrorists — a majority of whom are male — is misogynistic views and a history of violence toward women.
Incel, or involuntary celibate, groups often gather online, expressing frustration due to rejection from women both romantically and sexually and their anger toward men who are more popular with women. Specialists are seeing these ideologies grow everywhere — including in Johnson County.
“We are seeing more contacts from folks who identify that way,” Ryan Dickson, Crisis Helpline director for CommUnity Crisis Services, said. “It’s not the case for every guy who feels lonely, but it is something we encounter pretty often.”
CommUnity Crisis Services is a local organization driven by volunteers that assists individuals in a variety of situations. Dickson said CommUnity does not track the number of people who identify as incels who call, but anecdotally, there has been an increase over several years since he started as a volunteer in 2018.
“They are viewing relationships and interactions in a transactional way,” Dickson said. “They’re playing by the rules, and the outcomes are not meeting their expectations.”
Dickson said these individuals often get trapped in environments that reinforce their beliefs and avoid information that invalidates their beliefs.
“Many times, they can be part of a community that produces an echo chamber,” he said. “They don’t really have an avenue to challenge that through tools like empathy, understanding, and validation.”
Dickson said these ideologies can fuel loneliness, which is closely related to the growing suicide epidemic.
“I think what we have in common here between the male loneliness epidemic and suicidal ideation in general is the feeling or belief that there is no other option,” he said.
Mark Berg, founding director of the University of Iowa School of Social Science and Innovation, has researched the connections between antisocial behaviors and how they can become violent.
“People suffering from depression can place burdens on others, and they are more likely to withdraw from affection, which can be conflict-generating,” Berg said. “They’re also likely to have distorted perceptions of unfolding events and people’s intent.”
Berg said this type of behavior can lead to violence, but it also increases the risk of people experiencing depression becoming victims of violence. Berg used a data set from the U.S. Justice Department, which analyzed a sample of people in prison, and the data’s correlation with mental illness to further his research on the topic.
“We found mental illness is unique. It has a modest but consistent relationship with violent behavior,” he said. “It is not the vast majority of mentally ill people —the overwhelming majority do not engage in violence but it still is a risk factor.”
Relating to increases in gun violence, Berg said he found no direct link between mental illness and these types of crimes or mass killings beyond the connection mental illness has to violent behavior, despite efforts to improve mental health resources to stem gun violence.
However, he said more guns are being used in homicides and violent crimes across the country, which he believes is unique to the U.S. due to the accessibility of firearms.
“Many other countries across the world have populations with similar levels of mental illness,” he said. “But what makes us unique is that, unlike most every other western country in the world, we have a large private arsenal of easily accessible firearms that are proliferated in public spaces.”
While the U.S. has many anti-radicalization groups working to counter violent extremism, in the United Kingdom there is an anti-radicalization program called Act Early, which reflects growing extremism trends among young men.
The organization reported its number of referrals between 2019 and 2020 increased by 10 percent, from 5,737 referrals to 6,287. Of those referrals, 72 percent were individuals under the age of 30, and 88 percent were male.
The report indicated one of the potential causes for the increase was a growing trend of hateful extremist content online, potentially influencing young and vulnerable people, including men. Berg said there are troubling trends among young men that deserve more attention, as gun violence and violent crime continue in the U.S.
“Men are overwhelmingly the victims of homicide. They’re overwhelmingly the perpetrators of homicide. They are more likely to appear in emergency rooms for non-fatal injuries,” Berg said. “They’re not completing college at higher rates than women. They’re dropping out of the workforce. There’s all these underlying, correlated issues here that I think deserve more attention.”
According to data from the FBI, 90 percent of homicide offenders are male. Men also accounted for 78 percent of homicide victims in 2019. Male representation in colleges has dropped to around 42 percent, down from 47 percent 10 years ago. And roughly seven million men have dropped out of the workforce.
Data reinforces these trends among men and the rate they are increasing, including the trend of loneliness. However, loneliness among men and women is relatively similar, and is a part of what drives incel culture.
Miriam Lindner, a Harvard psychology postdoctoral student, drew connections on how incels can become susceptible to extremist ideologies and behaviors, which is usually rooted in misogyny, in a 2023 paper. Lindner analyzed the correlation between online activity and how it can amplify incel views and make violence appear attractive.
“Hateful online communities allow low-status men to engage in virtual or simulated coalition bargaining with a sympathetic audience of like-minded others, providing private but futile satisfaction,” Lindner wrote. “Existing accounts construe aggression as a response to the perceived failure to live up to male identity.”
Lindner wrote incels believe women are overpowering them in society, which fuels negative desires within men that can lead to misogynistic and extremist views.
The correlation between incels and extremists has led the FBI to identify these groups as a major domestic terrorism threat in 2021. Berg said the solution to the violence surrounding men comes down to law enforcement and the resources available to them to stop crime.
Dickson said CommUnity’s approach to this type of behavior comes from a place of empathy, even when it is challenging to relate to the person they are talking with.
“The antithesis to isolation is belonging, and that starts with being willing to hear the pain that they’re going through, validate that pain, and then an avenue for change and engagement becomes possible after we’ve done that,” he said.
Dickson said community involvement is crucial to identifying problematic behavior. He said CommUnity offers civilian training called Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, or ASIST, which helps civilians identify and handle problematic situations with loved ones.
He acknowledges the challenge people may be facing and encourages anyone experiencing depression, isolation, or harmful thoughts to receive assistance through crisis helplines at CommUnity or by calling 988.
“When you are asking about their story, it communicates that you care,” he said. “So, find ways to show that it is not a burden.”