Soon after Goethe’s novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” appeared in 1774, young men started dressing like its hero, in yellow trousers and blue jackets. Some also copied how he died. Werther shoots himself with a pistol after the woman he loves rejects him, and reports followed of young men using the same method. Several places banned the book.
In 1974 the researcher David Phillips gave the pattern a name, the Werther effect. It describes a spike in suicides that imitate one widely publicized death.
How contagion spreads
Suicide researchers call the underlying idea suicide contagion. A publicized death can act as a trigger, where protective factors are missing, for a susceptible person who learns of it through local knowledge or media accounts.
Clusters come in two kinds. Point clusters bunch up in time and place, and have been tied to people learning directly from those nearby. Mass clusters bunch up in time only. They have been tied to mass media coverage of celebrity deaths.
Phillips and colleagues reported in 1985 and 1989 that suicides and other accidents seem to rise after a well-publicized suicide. Imitation tends to come in the days, and sometimes weeks, after the news. After a widely discussed celebrity death, increased thoughts of suicide can last up to a year.
Young and old people appear most susceptible, but not the middle-aged. At least five percent of youth suicides may be influenced by contagion.
What the studies found
Four South Korean researchers found that suicide rates rose significantly after celebrity suicides between 2005 and 2008. The biggest jumps came in groups matching the celebrity’s sex, age and method. This is called differential identification: people who copy a death tend to share the age and gender of the person they copy.
The media take most of the blame. A 2002 study found influence from newspaper and television reports, film and television portrayals, and suicide literature. “Hearing about a suicide seems to make those who are vulnerable feel they have permission to do it,” Phillips said.
Increases generally show up only where the story was heavily covered. Rates have been found to rise up to ten days after a television report.
Not everyone accepts the evidence. Researchers including Gerard Sullivan argue that some analyses were selective and the findings less consistent than claimed. Fears of a wave after Kurt Cobain’s death never showed up in the numbers. Local coverage in Seattle focused on treatment, prevention and the pain the death caused his family, and the local suicide rate fell in the following months.
If you or someone you know is struggling, consult your doctor or a mental health professional.
