European Research Council honours Thorsten Quandt with Advanced Grant
(18.06.2025) Prof Dr Thorsten Quandt has been awarded a 2.5 million euro ‘ERC Advanced Grant’ by the European Research Council (ERC). Over the next five years, he will use this funding to research how certain online communities, which are primarily made up of young men, become dangerous environments. In a two-stage selection process with over 2,500 applications from all disciplines, a total of 281 researchers have now been awarded one of the coveted Advanced Grants, including 35 from Germany.
The online world of young nerds has long been seen as a haven for fans of digital games, science fiction and fantasy films or comics. For some time now, radicalisation processes and the emergence of ‘dark communities’ that spread inhumane ideologies, misogyny and extremist views have been observed in these spheres. One example is the sexist ‘incel’ movement, whose representatives adhere to an archaic understanding of gender, consider themselves involuntarily celibate (incel = involuntary celibates) - and develop hatred of women as a result. "We want to investigate how such toxic environments develop on the internet. What processes are behind them, who is involved and what role do targeted manipulations by third parties play?" says Thorsten Quandt, outlining his research project. Young men in particular who become perpetrators of violence are often seen as isolated cases, which neglects the importance of online communities. ‘So far, people have mainly looked at the tip of the iceberg, but neglected the much more everyday experiences of young men in such toxic environments.’ Another goal is therefore to develop intervention and protection strategies to make the digital sphere a ‘better place’ again - including for the communities themselves.
The research project entitled ‘DANCE - Dark Nerd Communities: A multi-method exploration of toxic degradation in the adolescent technosphere’ also breaks new ground in terms of methodology. In addition to traditional qualitative and quantitative forms of social research such as observations of live events and surveys, computer-aided methods, experiments and simulation studies are also being used. "This combination is unique. We hope that it will provide us with sound insights into little-researched areas for which there have only been isolated anecdotal reports to date," emphasises Thorsten Quandt.
Back in 2010, Thorsten Quandt was the first communication scientist to receive an ERC Starting Grant for the project ‘The social fabric of virtual life: A longitudinal multi-method study on the social foundations of online gaming’. With Advanced Grants, the European Research Council funds outstanding researchers in all scientific fields. The selection criteria are scientific excellence of the applicant paired with an innovative, forward-looking project. Other ERC funding lines are ‘Starting Grants’, ‘Proof of Concept Grants’ and ‘Synergy Grants’.
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