Our (w/ @robynkmooney.bsky.social) paper on pornography, body image, and sexual self-schemas was featured in @psypost.bsky.social! Check it out here: www.psypost.org/study-links-...
Posts by Brandon Sparks
See you in Victoria next June!
We are excited to share that the 6th North American Correctional and Criminal Justice Psychology Conference (N6) will take place June 3-5, 2027 in Victoria, Canada.
📍Save the date and feel free to spread the word and share this poster! 🌟 @canadianpsychology.bsky.social
Two great job opportunities at the Te Puna Haumaru Centre for Security and Crime Science at the University of Waikato. Applications due April 17!
Lecturer in Crime Science - www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
Lecturer in Psychological Criminology - www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
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.
đź’ˇ 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.
📢 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.
📊 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.
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
New preprint đź“‘: @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
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
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!
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....
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
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