This study examines how this generation of young heterosexual men—who have come of age in the “age of consent”—emotionally experience sex. We thematically analyzed 31 in-depth interviews with men aged 18 to 32 years. The most striking finding is how rarely these men described enjoying sex. Three themes emerged. First, anxiety and vigilance accompanied sexual encounters. Second, there was a moral concern about causing harm to a sexual partner. Third, shame arose not only from accusations by others, but also from self-criticism. The themes overlap substantially, suggesting aspects of a complex, sometimes contradictory experience. The defining feature is an inward turn: a cultural suspicion of men appears to have been internalized by some young men. For these men, the question when navigating consent is often not only “does she want this?” but “am I the kind of man who could get this wrong?” Sex, as one participant put it, is “like you’re trying to defuse a bomb.” These young men have come to approach sex as a hazard to manage rather than a relational experience to share. They attributed this wariness to the cultural climate that surrounds consent.
This is a difficult subject to discuss, because as you point out the manosphere is saying that this is quite common, feminists claim that this is "virtually nonexistent".
The article itself says "False accusations do occur, but the evidence is consistent that they are rare (Law Commission, Citation2025; Victoria Police, Citation2017). They are far rarer than these men assumed."
So I went to the Law Commission publication looking for more info. It basically says the same thing without any data, but cites a 2023 publication from the Law Commission with the same title. And it too, doesn't have any data, just makes the claim that they are "rare" and cites a 2021 publication fron the Crown Prosecution Service.
So what does this source say? "Other complaints of rape which have not resulted in successful prosecution outcomes always mean the victim lacks all credibility as a witness.". Nothing to do with the rate of false accusation at all, but instead making the point that ant prior accusations someone has made before which failed to result in a conviction is not necessarily a false accusation and should not harm their credibility, unless there is "a proper evidential basis to allege that the complaint was false". Which is a great point, but not adequate as a supporting citation for the original claim. It does not answer the initial question: how prevalent are false rape accusations?
It is a difficult question to answer. The range that seems the most legitimate to me which i have seen cited frequently, is 2%-8%. And while I have seen this figure in more respectable sources before, i'm going to cite this site which is dedicated to debunking manosphere myths.
This site uses the word "uncommon", which i think is fair. The original article claims that false accusations are rarer than the participants assume, but fails to define either of those.
It comes down to the failure of the criminal justice systems of the world to operate adequately to earn public trust. A lot of that is a consequence of patriarchy, and one of the ways that patriarchy harms men. But it is also class-related when the criminal justice systems are biased so heavily in favor of the wealthy. As one of the participants said, "You don’t have a lot of room for mistakes, unless you come from a wealthy family.”
A lot of rapes and false rape accusations, never go to court.
They live in the non-legal space of he said/she said. And they still have consequences for people's lives.
You can't get data about things like this, because it doesn't exist. All that exists are people's experiences and their testimony and the fragility of their perceptions and memories.
and that is all incredibly murky and can get into very dark places of human psychology that folks don't want to acknowledge. like how much of sexual assault and sexual trauma is tied to mental illness, and how the cycle of abuse perpetuates itself and how victims often become future abusers.
I'm nonbinary AFAB, and I personally think that accusations done through the legal system are rare, but I also think that social accusations and "jokes" about somebody's character are much more common than we want to talk about.
Another thing that we don't talk about, is that social accusations don't only come from people you've slept with. My partner and I once had to deal with some guy spreading rumors that I was being repeatedly raped and am too brainwashed to leave. We had to cut a lot of people out of our lives because they spread the rumor without checking in on me at all. It seriously hacks me off that they called themselves "feminist", while clearly not caring about the well-being of victims of sexual violence, because somebody that actually has feminist praxis would have offered help to an alleged victim. They didn't actually care about women, just spilling tea. Turns out that guy was telling on himself anyways, because now his ex-wife has a restraining order against him, but the rumor still occasionally pops up in the most aggravating places.
And it's infuriating, because I was raped by a boyfriend in high school, and molested by a babysitter as a toddler, but wasn't taken seriously for either of those. Now people are so totally onboard to believe the fiction that I want it, and I can't even.
Everything you say is sensible. But we should be careful not to let the complexity of researching this issue play into the hands of the misogynists. (There's actually a wikipedia page on this that has even more data than you tracked down - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape)
Nonetheless I think that there is a mismatch between what young men believe about the likelihood of being falsely accused and the reality, and this is perpetuated by people who want to influence young men. See, for example, here: https://www.thejournal.ie/drcc-survey-young-men-7177609-Sep2026/
I definitely see the class dynamic as well. Honestly, I don't really have any critique of your comment. I think my starting point on the internet is to assume people complicating or doubting this kind of data are redpill/incel/manosphere influenced people, and so someone with a more nuanced take like yourself is really not who I was semi-ranting at.
(Sidenote - In my other comment I mentioned that I have been raped by a woman. I also think that's connected to the patriarchy, perhaps ironically. My rapist, as I was actively saying "No, I don't want to do this" said "You are hard, so I know you are lying". So there's definitely more work to be done with respect to women as well.)