The appropriation and circulation of evolutionary science in the contemporary US and English-speaking manosphere

The manosphere is a collection of antifeminist men's groups. They are united by their enthusiasm for Darwinian evolution, especially around issues of sex differences. This research examines manosphere appropriations of evolutionary science from three angles. Firstly, it assesses the scientific literacy of manospherians with a survey, revealing relatively high levels of college science education and scientific literacy. Secondly, through qualitative discourse analysis, it thoroughly reviews the appropriations of evolutionary science found in the manosphere. Overall, manospherians tend to disproportionately apply biological theories to women, making for a uniform and strongly deterministic view of female behavior. Moreover, they also create their own evolutionary hypotheses to make sense of the world through a Darwinian lens. Yet, appropriations of evolutionary science vary between manosphere communities, depending on their political aims and narratives. Running through all these appropriations however is a presence of misogynistic biases, as well as exaggeration and simplification of academic research results. To understand this phenomenon better, this work finally explores scientific knowledge circulation and acquisition in the manosphere.