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Does Information That a Suicide Victim Was Psychiatrically Disturbed Reduce the Likelihood of Contagion? 1
Author(s) -
Higgins Linda,
Range Lillian M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1996.tb01130.x
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , social psychology , newspaper , romance , suicide prevention , psychiatry , clinical psychology , poison control , medical emergency , psychoanalysis , medicine , communication , advertising , business
For example, psychological disturbance is stigmatizing, so knowledge that the suicide victim was psychiatrically disturbed may decrease the possibility that others will imitate the act. To assess this possibility, 306 undergraduate volunteers read a fictitious newspaper article about a 16‐year‐old high school sophomore, Pat, who committed suicide. There were 7 variations of the article, 4 containing negative circumstances (psychiatric disturbance, romantic relationship breakup, parents’ divorce, alcohol problems), and 2 containing positive circumstances (being a varsity athlete, being an honors student). A control group received no information about circumstances. Knowledge of Pat's life circumstances had no effect on respondents’ estimates of the possibility of the suicide being imitated, but did affect attitudes about the suicidal act itself and attitudes toward Pat's family. Apparently the circumstances surrounding the suicide have no affect on respondents’ estimates of themselves following suit, but do affect how they see the victim and bereaved family.