In early 2002, the web site Heartless Bitches International (HBI) published several "rants" on the concept of the nice guy. The central theme was that a genuinely nice male is desirable, but that many nice guys are insecure men unwilling to articulate their romantic or sexual feelings directly.
According to journalist Paris Martineau, the incel and red pill movements (part of the anti-feminist manosphere) recruit depressed, frustrated men – who may suffer from "nice guy syndrome" – into the alt-right.