From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Fri 17 Jan 2003 - 04:57:49 GMT
Subject: FWD [fort] Werther Effect
The Werther Effect
by Loren Coleman
Copyright 2002
The media calls it the "copycat" phenomenon, and suicidologists term it
the "Werther Effect." In the 1980s, one outcome was "suicide clusters."
Talking about suicide saves lives, and this is an entirely different
matter. Prevention work has shown that discussing suicide in a
framework of alternative modeling and protective factors does not
"cause" suicides but prevents them. The Werther Effect, however, is
another matter, and has much to do with the modeling of the methods,
plus the isolation, impulsiveness, and hopelessness of the suicidal
individual.
The Werther Effect was originally coined by Dr. David P Phillips, from
a 1774 novel written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (the author of
Faust) entitled The Sorrows of Young Werther. In this story, the
youthful character Werther falls in love with a women who is promised
to another. Always melodramatic, Werther decides that life cannot go
on, that his love is lost. He then dresses in boots, a blue coat, and
a yellow vest, sits at his desk with an open book, and shoots himself.
In the following years, throughout Europe, so many young men dressed
themselves as Werther and sat at a desk with an open book to shoot
themselves that the book, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was banned in
Italy, Germany, and Denmark.
In the 1970s, Dr. Phillips conducted formal studies suggesting that the
Werther Effect was, indeed, a reality, that massive media attention and
retelling of the specific details of a suicide (or, in some cases,
untimely deaths) could increase the number of suicides. The 1962
suicide of Marilyn Monroe is a classic case. One hundred, ninety-seven
individual suicides in the following month may have used the Hollywood
star's suicide as a model for theirs. The suicide rate in the US
increased by 12% for the month after the Monroe suicide publicity.
Suicides of celebrities are the most apparent illustrations. But
historically, certain other celebrity examples of "hidden suicides"
also come to mind, including that of James Dean's death, originally
reported by the media as a car crash, but whispered about as a suicide.
The Werther Effect from such well-publicized deaths does appear to
have some impact.
Before internet and cable news, the significance of stories in
newspapers, on the radio, and via broadcast television news could be
tracked rather well. In Dr. David Phillips' study on imitation and
suggestion, immediately after publicized suicides, the rate of
automobile fatalities also was found to have increased (Phillips,
1979). His study showed a strong correlation between the reporting of
suicide and motor vehicle accidents. The more publicity the story
received, the higher the automobile fatality rate. Interestingly
enough, reports of younger suicide victims were followed by younger
people dying by vehicle crashes and reports of older suicide victims
were followed by older people dying by vehicle crashes. The direct
"imitation," down to the actual age of the "imitators" of the
publicized suicides was there in the data.
Phillips found the correlation between the reporting of the stories and
the increase in suicide rates at that time might be a result of
imitating, modeling and suggestion by the drivers. Phillips examined a
two week period beginning two days prior to the publicized suicide and
ending 11 days later. The researcher found that automobile fatalities
increased by 31% three days after a suicide was reported in the media.
The increase appeared to also have a lesser seven day mirror peak, as
well.
Phillips (1979) maintains that there are no other variables involved in
the increase in suicides. He reported: "The increase in the suicide
rate was not due to the effect of weekday or monthly fluctuations in
motor vehicle fatalities, to holiday weekends, or to yearly linear
trends, because the effects were corrected for in the selection and
treatment of the control periods, with which the experimental periods
are compared" (p. 1159). It is also interesting to comment that the
motor vehicle fatalities are most frequent in the region where the
suicide story is publicized.
The first book dealing with the copycat phenomena, Suicide Clusters
(1987) notes the Werther Effect in other events besides suicides. The
book is dedicated to David Phillips for his groundbreaking work that
has gone largely ignored by most scholars.
During the 1990s, however, Professor Riaz Hassan, a professor of
Sociology at Flinders University, Australia, confirmed the links
between reporting of suicides and further suicides. Hassan replicated
Phillips' studies in Australia. He took his data from two major
metropolitan newspapers with a national impact, between 1981 and 1990,
and identified the stories that reported suicides. He then took the
daily suicide rates between 1981 and 1990, and analyzed whether or not
the newspaper stories had an effect on the number of suicides in the
days following.
Hassan defined his study by the "impact" and that "was measured by the
location of the newspaper story, by the size of the newspaper story and
headline and by a presence or absence of photographs."
Summarizing Hassan's findings, according to Paul Herman (1996), they
"show that the male suicide rates increased significantly in a three
day period which included the day of publication of high impact reports
and the two subsequent days. The female rate did not increase but the
ratio between male and female suicide showed a significant skewing in
high impact periods. The findings clearly suggest some association as
far as males are concerned between the publication of the suicide
stories in the two metropolitan papers and the suicide rate."
As anyone watching the media and the societal reaction understands, the
suicide clusters of the 1980s were replaced by the school shootings of
the 1990s, almost all conducted by suicidal male youth. The Werther
Effect has merely shifted its impact as the media has shifted its focus.
In unpublished studies and surveys I have conducted, research indicates
the Werther Effect's impact and involvement may be evidenced in other
media-discussed violence. For example, some school shootings
situations have been followed by workplace violence, mass killings, and
other dramatic suicides or accidents. Popular media writers tracking
the school shootings have often missed the groupings of workplace
violence or other incidents that take place three days, and in the week
after the initial incident.
Patterns still are very apparent in suicide clusters, and much can be
discovered from looking at local clusters, as well as nationally
publicized suicides and related events.
As 2002 began, a dramatic event was noted by the media which serves as
a vivid example. The well-publicized suicide of the 15 year old male
youth (Charles J. Bishop, family name formerly Bishara) who crashed the
stolen Cessna plane crash into the Bank of America building on January
6, 2002, was clearly modeled on the September 11th terrorists' suicide
plane crashes. Furthermore, this Tampa plane suicide happened on a
weekend in which several (17) plane crashes (with seven being Cessnas)
occurred, with seven of them being fatalities. This is an unusually
high number of small plane crashes. Some of these included apparent and
overt suicides. Hidden suicides may have also taken place, but the
data is unclear on this point.
This Tampa incident was followed by events which appear to further
illustrate the Werther Effect. Certainly, the dramatic suicide of
another "CB", another Charles, a former British special forces veteran
Charles Bruce, author of Freefall, when he jumped (without a parachute)
to his death from another Cessna over the English countryside on
January 8th, must be considered. Also, drummer Jon Lee from the Welsh
rock band Feeder who completed his suicide in his Florida home, on
January 7th, is worthy of noting, due to the location.
More rigorous studies, in the future, should assist in unlocking many
questions raised by the Werther Effect's relationship to suicide and
related phenomena.
Surveys and studies by Phillips, the CDC, and others, however, now
calls forth that the addition of "protective factors" (hotline numbers,
for example) to a news story, and the subtraction of graphic details of
the methods used may actually decrease the effect of the media's impact
on future suicides.
-----
Various citations for the Werther Effect include:
Bollen, KA. and Phillips, DP. "Suicidal Motor Vehicle Fatalities in
Detroit: A Replication," American Journal of Sociology: 1981: 87.
Brent DA, Kerr MM, Goldstein C, Bozigar J, Wartella M, Allan MJ. An
outbreak
of suicide and suicidal behavior in a high school. American academy of
child
and adolescent psychiatry 1989; 918-924.
Coleman L. Suicide Clusters. Boston, MA: Faber & Faber, 1987.
Etzersdorfer E, Sonneck G, Nagel-Kuess S. Newspaper reports and
suicide. New
England journal of medicine 1992; 327: 502 - 503.
Gould MS, Wallenstein S, Kleinman M. Time-space clustering of teenage
suicide. American journal of epidemiology 1990; 131: 71-78.
Gould MS, Petrie K, Kleinman MH, Wallenstein S. Clustering of attempted
suicide: New Zealand national data. International journal of
epidemiology.
1994; 23: 1185- 1189.
Herman, P. Reporting of Suicide. Australian Press Council News. May
1996;
8, 2: 1.
Jobes DA, Berman AL, O¹Carroll PW, Eastgard S, Knickmeyer S. The Kurt
Cobain suicide crisis: perspectives from research, public health and
news
media. Suicide and life-threatening behavior 1996; 26: 260-272.
Phillips DP. The influence of suggestion on suicide: substantive and
theoretical implication of the Werther effect. American Sociological
Review
1974; 39: 240 - 254.
Phillips, DP. Motor Vehicle Fatalities Increase Just After Publicized
Suicide Stories. Science 24 June 1977: 196.
Phillips, DP. Suicide, Motor Vehicle Fatalities, and the Mass Media:
Evidence Toward a Theory of Suggestion. American Journal of Sociology
1979: 84: 5.
Phillips DP, Carstensen LL. Clustering of teenage suicide after
television
news stories about suicide. New England journal of medicine 1986;
685-689.
Riaunet Å, Stiles TC, Rygnestad T, Bjerke T. Mass-media reports of
suicide
and suicide attempts, and the rate of parasuicide. I Bjerke T og
Stiles TC.
Suicide attempts in the Nordic countries. Trondheim: Tapir, 1991.
Schmidtke A, Häfner H. Public attitudes towards an effect and mass
media on
suicide and deliberate selfharm. I RFW Diekstra. Suicide and its
prevention: the role of attitude and imitation. Leiden: Brill, 1989:
311-330.
Velting DM, Gould MS. Suicide contagion. I RW Maris, MM Silverman, SS
Canetto (eds). Review of suicidology. New York: Guilford, 1997: 96-137
----------------------------
Loren Coleman
Copyright 2002
Werther@lorencoleman.com
===============================================================
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