What do we Know about Media Effects on Imitation of Suicidal Behaviour

News and Social Policy: Reporting of Suicide and Mental Illness

“…In addition, the effect cannot be explained as a 'bringing forward' of suicide deaths that would have occurred anyway, since the increase in suicide rates observed after media portrayals is not later followed by a commensurate drop in rates. Other international reviews have reached similar conclusions to our own (see, for example, Schmidtke and Schaller, 1998;Martin, 1998).…”

The Press Coverage of Celebrity Suicide and the Development of Suicide Frequencies in Germany

“…To a great extent, findings are in line with the assumptions of social learning theory. A modeling effect of suicide coverage is, irrespective of country and cultural background, often reported in international literature-for example, with regard to the method of a suicide (Felson, 1996;Hawton & Williams, 2001;Schmidtke & Schaller, 1998). After the suicide of the former prime minister of Schleswig-Holstein in October 1987, German police recorded a significant increase in suicides by similar methods (Trübner, 1988).…”

“…The relationship between media coverage and suicide can be explained by the social learning theory (Pirkis & Blood, 2001c;Schmidtke & Schaller, 1998). According to this theory, learning can take place in two ways: (a) by personal experience and (b) by the experience of others.…”

WHO: Preventing suicide: a resource for media professional

“…In that work the hero shoots himself after an ill-fated love, and shortly after its publication there were many reports of young men using the same method to commit suicide. This resulted in a ban of the book in several places (1). Hence the term "Werther effect", used in the technical literature to designate imitation (or copycat) suicides.…”