This video is an episode of an APA podcast called Speaking of Psychology: suicide contagion. Kim Mills talks with a Ph.D. from Stetson University, Christopher Ferguson. He is interested in that topic, especially how researches can be affected by the social pressure. He links the suicide contagion with a vaster subject, social contagion such as mass shooting for instance.
According to Ferguson, there are three areas of research on suicide contagion: by peers, by news media and by fictional television shows. Researches show that there is a pretty solid effect for peers and a less strong one for medias. But, for TV shows, evidences remain inconclusive. Yet, papers were published explaining that, at the moment of the broadcast, there was an increase of suicide and researches about it. It is not clear whether there is a real effect or if people want to be more informed. Ferguson emphasizes that they are not sure if it translates in reality, he does a parallel with gun violence and the increase of internet researches on gun violence. Next, they discuss the idea of putting warnings in TV shows to warn people. Ferguson says that it can be interesting for people who could be offended. However, some research also shown that it can create anxiety, there is a paradox. He thinks that it depends on the content. If it’s shocking, the warning could be useful. Nonetheless, if it’s not, it could have an opposed effect.
To foil biases observed in publications, Ferguson suggests producing new research and transparent open science. For instance, the fact that these studies have hypotheses that are easy to guess and people tend to change their behaviour because they think it would respond to research expectations.
I thought that the video was interesting because it had a critical view of researches on suicidal contagion and it made parallels with other types of social contagion. The use of a famous TV show also helped me understand the concern around suicide. I agree with Ferguson’s point of view because sometimes medias tend to panic and it can be harmful when they simplify this complex notion by saying “suicide contagion can be caused by a TV show”. I think a phenomenon like suicide is complex and caused by different factors. It can be deleterious when disinformation is widely spread, people tend to make causal relationship. For instance, the suicide scene from Thirteen Reasons Why was deleted from the show because of the negative media coverage. Personally, I thought that the suicide scene was really shocking and never romanticize suicide. It depicts suicide as a long and painful procedure. To conclude, I would say that this show was a warning to prevent suicide much more than an invitation. It’s a good example of how medias and researches should be careful on their presentation of phenomena and try to moderate their comments.
Useful words :
- To foil : contrecarrer
- Media coverage : couverture médiatique
- To remain : rester
- To offend (sb) : offenser
- shortcut : raccourci