{"id":4963,"date":"2026-06-05T09:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/?post_type=cu_story&p=4963"},"modified":"2026-06-07T21:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:09:12","slug":"mikaila-cober-studies-tactics-of-red-pill-content-creators","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/story\/mikaila-cober-studies-tactics-of-red-pill-content-creators\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikaila Cober Studies the Persuasive Tactics of Red Pill Content Creators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Mikaila Cober Studies the Persuasive Tactics of Red Pill Content Creators \n <\/h1>\n \n \n\n

Master of Arts, Communication <\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\"Mikaila<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a Gen Z student active on social media, Mikaila Cober would sometimes see \u201cmanosphere\u201d content dropped into her social media feeds. It might be dating advice for single men or unconventional health theories. Mikaila wondered both why the algorithm was sharing these posts, and why boys and men were so attracted to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That question became the focus of her Master\u2019s Research Paper entitled \u201cWhen a Man Speaks You Will Listen\u201d:\u202fUnderstanding the Persuasive Tactics of Red Pill Content Creators and the Communities They Create.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I learned more about the manosphere, I found it scary, especially thinking about all of the men in my life and how easy it could be for them to fall for this content,\u201d said Mikaila. \u201cI wanted to understand why it was so persuasive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikaila began by identifying five manosphere communities: Red pillers, incels, pickup artists, men\u2019s rights groups, and men going their own way (MGTOW). She found they often overlap and are united by a shared anti-feminist ideology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSupporters of this content are driven by entitlement, victimization, emotion, and a desire to uphold red pill ideology,\u201d said Mikaila, referring to the neoconservative belief system. \u201cThey are going to the internet because they feel lonely and they don\u2019t have a community. It\u2019s through this act of vulnerability that they get accidentally pulled into these communities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikaila decided to focus her research on two influencers in the manosphere: Myron Gaines, a man of colour who is aligned with the white supremacy movement, and Pearl Davis, dubbed the female Andrew Tate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWatching their YouTube shorts, I realized that content creators like Davis and Gaines are able to persuade their followers into engaging with this content through identification rhetoric, sex, capital, and emotional manipulation,\u201d says Mikaila.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adds that, not only\u00a0does manosphere\u00a0content reinforce misogyny and deny\u00a0women space to defend themselves,\u00a0it\u00a0also echoes white supremacy ideology\u00a0and\u00a0celebrates patriarchal structures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikaila\u00a0plans to continue\u00a0research in the area\u00a0with the support of her supervisor Dr. Miranda Brady\u00a0and hopes to publish her\u00a0Master\u2019s\u00a0Research Essay.\u00a0After convocation, she will continue her public sector career as a\u00a0communications\u00a0officer\u00a0with the Department of National Defence,\u00a0where she\u00a0started out\u00a0as a co-op student.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between her co-op experience and her master\u2019s research, Mikaila is grateful for her experience at Carleton and excited for what lies ahead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a Gen Z student active on social media, Mikaila Cober would sometimes see \u201cmanosphere\u201d content dropped into her social media feeds. It might be dating advice for single men or unconventional health theories. Mikaila wondered both why the algorithm was sharing these posts, and why boys and men were so attracted to them.  That question became the focus of her Master\u2019s Research Paper entitled \u201cWhen a Man Speaks You Will Listen\u201d:\u202fUnderstanding the Persuasive Tactics of Red Pill Content Creators and the Communities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":4942,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[306],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-4963","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-grad-feature"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5023,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4963\/revisions\/5023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}