SUICIDE CONTAGION EFFECT : THE ROLE OF MEDIA

BY

NIDHI VERMA, KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, INDIA

UMED SINGH, KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, INDIA

&

AJAY SINGH, WESTERN STATE COLORADO UNIVERSITY, U.S.A.

Suicide, widely considered as the most tragic way of ending one’s life, poses a major challenge to civil society.

According to WHO (2012) suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide in the last 45 years.

Every year, almost one million people die from suicide; a “global” mortality rate of 16 per 100, 000 or one death every 40 seconds ( WHO, 2011).

The term suicide has been derived from the latin word sui (of oneself) and cide or cidium ( a killing).

Suicidal behavior comprises a spectrum of behavior ranging from precursor behaviors such as Suicide Ideation, suicide plan, and suicide attempt to completion of suicide.

Suicide Ideation: refers to thoughts of killing oneself without regard to intention, and it varies in severity from passively thinking of death to having specific suicidal thoughts along with an intent or plan.

Suicide Attempt: is a self –infected, potentially injurious behavior with a non-fatal outcome for which there is evidence (implicit or explicit) of intent to die (Silverman et. al . 2007).

Completed Suicide: is when individual actually commits suicide and is fatal.

Research has evidenced that adolescents are at great risk of suicide ideation, and clearly onset of suicide ideation links with greater risk of plan and attempt; and the transition from ideation to plan and attempt occurs within first year of onset (Bridge et.al. 2006; Abel et. al. 2012).

There could be number of factors leading to suicide such as Psychological, Neuro- biological, Socio-cultural but one of the key factors leading a vulnerable individual to suicide could be publicity about suicides.

It hits particularly the young, and currently worldwide deaths from suicide are among the top three causes of death among people aged 15-35 years for both males and females.

Although suicide accounts for only 1% of all deaths, yet, when these occur they frequently attract disproportionate media interest.

Scholars working in the field of mental health, social sciences and media; and even WHO have recognized the impact of media on suicidal behavior in 2 ways i.e. “Contagion or Werther effect” and “Papageno effect”

Our paper focuses on “Contagion Effect “which is the most overlooked reason for increasing suicide rate among youth particularly.

SUICIDE CONTAGION: refers to a process by which media exposure to the suicide or suicidal behavior of one or more person’s influences others to commit or attempt suicide & suicidal behavior (Stack, 2009; Siask & Varnik, 2012).

Suicide contagion should be viewed within the larger context of behavioral contagion which has been described as the situation in which the same behavior spreads quickly and spontaneously through a group.

Behavioral contagion has also been inferred to influence the transmission of conduct disorder, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy.

According to behavioural contagion theory, an individual has a pre-existing motivation to perform a particular behavior, which is offset by an avoidance gradient, so that an approach –avoidance conflict exists.

The extensive coverage of suicide in the media may serve to reduce the avoidance gradient.

Ashton & Donnon (1981) revealed that media may also effect method specific suicide rates.

Phillips, Lesyna & Paight (1992) have emphasized that repetition of suicidal news is another key factor that people imitate.

Imitation appears more likely when the suicide is covered on the front page, in large headlines, and is heavily publicized through various media means.

Stark 2006 asserted that suicide reports glorified via newspapers and television lead to the imitation or contagion effect particularly on young and elderly people than those on middle years of life.

According to social learning theory, the greater the amount of coverage of suicide in the media, the greater is the increase in suicide rate.

Research has established that when media that is newspapers, film and television, report suicidal deaths, additional suicides may result by virtue of contagion or copy cat effects (Gould, 2001; Stack, 2000a, b, and 2003).

Increased number of suicides results from media accounts of suicide which romanticize and dramatize the description of suicidal deaths ( Cheng, Hawton, Lee & Chen, 2007).

Despite of increasing number of suicides in a particular time frame and using the same method, there is still a paucity of media research on impact of media on suicides in India.

However, in Western countries, the existence of ‘Suicide Contagion” is ably recognized by all working in the field of mental health, mass – media and social sciences.

Therefore, there is a dire need that media professionals should be sensitive towards the impact of media news displayed on the mental health of public in general.

HOW MEDIA IS RESPONSIBLE:

Media reports of suicide and suicidal behavior may encourage vulnerable individuals, who may have had some predispositions towards suicide ideation but normally wouldn’t have carried out a suicide attempt.

Stack (2000) has collected considerable evidence for imitation effects from suicide reported from different kinds of media such as newspapers, radio, television etc.

The copy-cat effects or imitation effects found to be particularly strong when media professionals portray the suicidal incidence in a more dramatic & fictional way and when featured repetitively.

It has been found that imitation is more likely among members who can identify themselves with the suicide victim in some way; for example by gender, age or ethnic background.

A recent example of suicide contagion effect is reported in Hong- Kong. A substantial increase in deaths by suicide has been observed following the suicide of a well known pop singer who jumped from a high building & died. ( Yip et. al. 2006).

This again attracts our attention on the importance of influence of extensive and fictional media coverage.

IMPACT OF MEDIA ON COGNITIVE AND AROUSAL PROCESSES

Researchers should focus on understanding the effect of media portrayal of suicide on cognitions, attitudes and emotions of an individual. Cognitive and arousal processes are the two major types of mediating process that affect the acquisition, maintenance and emission of suicidal behavior.

ATTITUDE: The most common source of information about suicide tends to be media. Horwood and Fergusson (2004) mentioned that young people tend to hold mixed or liberal attitudes towards suicide. Those with lifetime histories of suicidal or suicide attempt tended to hold more liberal attitudes.

These research on attitude raised concerns about the potential for media coverage of youth suicide issues to normalize suicide as a common, and thereby acceptable, response among young people. Therefore, the careful dissemination of accurate information about suicide by knowing ledge able and reputable sources.

EMOTIONAL AROUSAL: Media influences viewers’ arousal state. It has been found that media exposure not only elevates excitation, it also maintains a particular level of pre-exposure arousal. Exposure to media violence is assumed to affect suicidal tendency through emotional arousal.

EMOTIONAL HABITUATION/DESENSITISATION:

Repeated exposure may lead to emotional habituation or desensitization. This emotional habituation may reduce concern for others’ suicidal attempts.

WHAT THE MEDIA CAN DO?

Media can also have the protective effect, called “Papageno effect” i.e. if media reports the appropriate coping mechanisms which would result in lowering down the suicide rate.

Countries like United States or United Kingdom have worked extensively to reduce suicide contagion effect.

Their researches revealed that risk for suicide contagion as a result of media can be minimized by factual and concise media reports of suicide (Hawton & Couletr, 2003.)

In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control published a set of recommendations on reporting of suicide in a controlled manner.

The American Association of Suicidology adopted these as their official guidelines for journalists in an attempt to minimize contagious effects from news reports of suicides.

Guidelines of media reporting now exist in several countries including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland.

WHO and American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (2001) have developed additional guidelines to decrease the effect of suicide contagion.

WHO (2000) recommends certain Do’s and Don’ts:

Media has been suggested to refer to suicide as a completed suicide and not successful suicide.

Highlight alternatives to suicide.

Publicize risk indicators and warning signs.

Provide information about help lines and mental health professional resources.

DO not publish photograph or suicide notes.

Do not report specific details and methods used.

Do not give simplistic reasons.

Do not glorify or sensationalize suicide.

Do not use religious or cultural stereotypes.

Do not apportion blame.

Suicide should not be portrayed as a method of coping with personal problems such as bankruptcy, failure to pass an examination etc.

Media should publish some necessary information along with news on suicide such as providing list of mental health professionals and counselors to share the problems with their working email addresses and contact numbers.

Till date hardly any empirical study on Suicide Contagion effect is being reported in India. There fore, there is a dire need of media and mental health professionals to focus on this area of research.

The above mentioned guidelines if followed by media professionals will not only help the media professionals to work sensitively towards the society but will also be helpful in reducing the number of suicides and creating a peaceful environment and overall wellbeing in society.