How robust is the Werther effect? A re-examination of the suggestion-imitation model of suicide

Abstract

The suggestion-imitation model of suicide posits that the number of observed suicides in the population will increase following reports in the media of individuals who died by suicide. Moreover, this imitative suicide phenomenon, which is an example of the Werther effect (Phillips, 1974), is believed to be greatest when the amount of media publicity surrounding a suicide is greatest. Although a number of studies have reported positive associations between mass media portrayals of suicide and actual suicide rates, these studies have been criticized on both methodological and statistical grounds. Perhaps the most central statistical concern is that these studies did not control for the positive correlation (i.e., dependency) between the expected and observed suicide rates before examining the impact of media publicity on the observed number of suicides. In light of this limitation, the present study re-analysed data from two classic articles but, unlike the original authors, the present inquiry examined residualized observed suicides as the dependent variable of interest. Results of the re-analyses indicated only partial support for the Werther effect. Directions for future research are considered.

Keywords:

• Werther
• suicide
• media
• imitation
• suggestion
• modeling

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Rhonda Swickert for her helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

Biographical note

James Hittner is an associate professor of psychology at the College of Charleston. His research focuses on several areas including cognitive expectancies and substance abuse, stress and coping, personality and creativity, and applied statistics.

Although the suicides were initially selected by Phillips based on whether they appeared on the front page of the New York Times, the New York Times could not be used to examine the impact of amount of newspaper publicity because the New York Times devoted more than 1 day of front page coverage to only three suicides. In contrast, because the New York Daily News devoted multiple days of front-page coverage to a larger number of the same set of suicides, the New York Daily News was used to quantify the impact of amount of newspaper publicity (see Phillips, 1974, pp. 343, 345).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James B Hittner

Biographical note James Hittner is an associate professor of psychology at the College of Charleston. His research focuses on several areas including cognitive expectancies and substance abuse, stress and coping, personality and creativity, and applied statistics.