Werther effect

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In media impact research , social psychology and sociology, the Werther effect is the assumption that there is a causal relationship between suicides , which have been extensively reported in the media, and an increase in the suicide rate in the population.

Origin of the term

The term goes back to the occurrence of a "wave of suicide" after the publication of Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774 and its numerous imitations ( Wertheriads ). This phenomenon was controversially discussed in science: While some researchers spoke of an epidemic , others point to the retrospectively insufficient epidemiological record or speak of no detectable suicides in the imitation of Werther. Other researchers point to a double-digit number of suicides that have been shown to have been related to this book publication. One case concerns Christiane Henriette Sophie von Laßberg , who drowned herself in the Ilm on January 16, 1776 . She supposedly had a copy of his Werther with her.

A distinction must be made between the Werther effect and the term "Werther fever", which describes the phenomenon that parts of the bourgeois youth in reaction to the novel, among other things, like the figure of Werther in the so-called Werther costume (consisting of blue tails, yellow waistcoat, knee breeches made of yellow leather, gauntlet boots and a round, gray felt hat). Goethe himself did not expect his work to have such an impact. He later wrote in Poetry and Truth :

“Just as I […] felt relieved and enlightened by having turned reality into poetry, so my friends got confused by believing that one had to transform poetry into reality, reenact such a novel and, if necessary, shoot themselves; and what was going on here at the beginning among a few, later happened in the large audience and this little book, which had been so useful to me, was disreputed as extremely harmful. "

The city council in Leipzig banned the circulation of Werther in January 1775 on the grounds: “A book is being sold here which bears the title Leiden des young Werther. This writing is a recommendation of suicide ”. Wearing the Werther costume was also prohibited. The ban was in effect in Leipzig until 1825. The distribution of the letter novel was also prohibited in other cities.

The Leipzig legal scholar Christian Gottlieb Hommel is said to have said in 1778: “Everyone has read this book, but no one has shot himself yet.” And elsewhere: “But I know that someone hanged himself who wrote a theological writings against Goethe up to has read through to the end. "

Scientific Research

Scientists use the terms imitation hypothesis, suggestion theory, disinhibition effect or contagion hypothesis to describe the causal relationship between the model suicide and the subsequent offenses. The "Werther Effect" is not only being studied by media researchers and psychologists, but also by scientists in suicide .

The term Werther Effect was introduced in 1974 by the American sociologist David Philipps , who was the first scientist to prove a connection between the reporting of suicides by prominent people and the suicide rate in the population. He researched the number of celebrity suicides featured on the front page of the New York Times between 1947 and 1967 - there were 33 cases - and examined the official statistics on deaths for possible effects on the suicide rate. Philipps noted an increase in the rate in all cases. The more prominent the suicide, the higher the number of copycat offenders. The largest wave of suicides in this investigation was triggered by reports of the death of Marilyn Monroe , although various theories about her death have been and still exist. Further studies by Philipps, in which he claimed that imitations can also be causally proven after fictitious suicides in soap operas , are, however, considered inadequate and inconclusive.

In Germany, the psychologists Armin Schmidtke and Heinz Häfner observed in connection with the multi-part ZDF film Death of a Schoolboy in 1981 a statistical accumulation of railway suicides among young people in West Germany. The six episodes tell the story of a suicide by a train from different perspectives, the moment of the suicide was shown at the beginning of each episode. The rate of railroad suicides among 15- to 19-year-olds increased in the period during and five weeks after the broadcast of the series compared to the years before and after by 175 percent for men and 167 percent for women. In contrast, no effect was found in men over 40 and women over 30. The series was shown again a year and a half later and then produced a slightly lesser effect.

More recent studies come to the conclusion that there are copycat effects with suicides, although these are higher when reporting real cases than with fictional suicides. Jane Pirkis and R. Warwick Blood evaluated 42 studies in a meta study in 2001 and came to similar results. According to Schmidke and Schaller and others, the following influencing variables are relevant: degree of publicity, type of media, number and type of recipients , characteristics of the recipients, type of behavior presented, valence of the model (" role model "), presentation of the consequences as well as short and long-term effects the media models on the recipient. The danger of a purely causal connection is not confirmed or criticized : Robert D. Goldney did not question the relationship between media reports and suicides, but warned against making the media a “scapegoat”. Rather, other risk factors such as mental disorders are co-causative.

In addition to prominent role models, the location and method of suicide also play a role in suicides. The Golden Gate Bridge is a destination for suicides. Likewise, after reports on Robert Enke, the number of rail suicides increased, according to the Leipzig psychiatry professor Ulrich Hegerl with four times as many deaths immediately after the crime. As early as the 1950s, following reports on the plant protection product E 605, an increase in suicidal poisoning with this product was registered. Karl-Heinz Ladwig , Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine, said: “You don't even have to be able to identify with a person to imitate what you did.” It is enough that the method or the location of the suicide is established in the collective consciousness through media reports.

In July 2017, the professional association of paediatricians called for the US television series Dead Girls Lies About a Schoolgirl's Suicide to be discontinued immediately, as it posed a significant risk for unstable and mentally ill young people. He referred to the Werther effect. Association spokesman Josef Kahl said that this series disregards international guidelines on how suicide is reported.

Gould et al. published a study in 2014 in which the reporting of suicides, in which there was an accumulation of suicides in the same place within half a year, and the reporting of suicides, after which there were no further suicides, were compared. It was found that the reports that subsequently led to an accumulation of suicides in the same place reported more frequently and in more detail about the first suicide. There were u. a. Name, time, place, method and suicide note were published and the report was more frequent on front pages. This study showed greater effects in reporting suicide by adolescents and celebrities with whom those at risk of suicide identified and viewed them as role models.

Sonneck et al. (1994) found that subway suicides in Vienna increased enormously between 1984 and 1987. The reasons for the increase in suicides during this period include: a. in the fact that the underground system was widely accepted as a means of suicide and that very dramatic reports on the suicides were published in all of the major Austrian newspapers. In 1987 the working group of the Austrian Society for Suicide Prevention developed guidelines for the media and led discussions. Since then, newspapers have only printed shorter and less detailed articles that were not published on the front page, or did not even report a suicide.

Media reaction

Since 1997 there has been a guideline of the German Press Council on reporting on suicides to protect private life and the informational self-determination of those affected : “Reporting on suicide calls for restraint. This applies in particular to the naming of names and the description of more detailed accompanying circumstances. ”However, the press code has no binding effect. The editor-in-chief of the Bild- Zeitung says, for example, that the editors of the paper “sometimes rate the reporting interest significantly higher than the press council.” This will “always be the case in borderline cases”.

In Norway, the earliest version of the Vær varsom poster from 1936 contained the second sentence that the press should “not report on suicide, attempted suicide and mental illness”, “except in very exceptional cases”. This poster is a self-imposed commitment for Norwegian journalists to this day.

In an empirical study on the Robert Enke case, journalists at the University of Mainz found that the German media by no means showed self-imposed restraint, but had reported in detail about the suicide.

The Swiss Press Council has a guideline to avoid encouraging imitations: “In all cases, the reporting is limited to the information necessary to understand the suicide and must not contain any intimate or disparaging details. In order to avoid the risk of piracy, journalists refrain from detailed, precise information about the methods and means used. "

Many media outlets have internal guidelines for reporting on suicides and undertake to voluntarily refrain from publication, unless the circumstances of the suicide have already caused a public stir.

The media journalist Stefan Niggemeier explains that the topic is not taken even more seriously in editorial offices with the fact that the research findings to date contradict the self-image of journalists: “Even the thought that only reporting a fact - regardless of whether you name or names other details - it can have significant negative consequences is difficult for journalists. "He comes to the conclusion:" Of course it must then also be possible to say: This is a very exciting story, and I also know 37 details which I would like to tell, but I still write very soberly and leave out 36 of the 37 details. Yes, that runs counter to the normal rules of journalism, but at this point the rules have to be suspended! "

The Blue Whale Challenge (or 'Blue Whale Game'), which has been spreading on the net in recent years and is supposed to be a hoax, has attracted many (suicidal) youngsters due to the attention it has received in the media to look for risky content on the internet and be interested in such games. The more unreflective coverage of such challenges, the more people who are at risk will be led to try their own groups, and probably the more teenagers will look for such groups.

Papageno effect

In terms of content, the Papagenoeffect contrasts with the Werther Effect and describes the fact that a certain amount of reporting on suicides can even prevent such in the future.

The following aspects are important:

  • Descriptions of constructive crisis management
  • Avoiding a monocausal representation of the motif
  • Refraining from detailed descriptions of the exact circumstances of the act and the person
  • Interviews with relatives
  • No heroization or romanticization
  • Explain individual problems, show possible solutions and offer professional help

The term comes from the character Papageno from Mozart's Magic Flute , who can overcome his initial thoughts of suicide with the help of others.

Empirical Findings

A study by the suicide researcher Niederkrotenthaler et al. (2010) at the Medical University of Vienna , in which around 500 articles on the subject of suicide and connections with changes and suicide rates were analyzed, showed that the representation of the individual suicidal thought without suicidal behavior correlates negatively with suicide rates and reports about people who encounter crisis situations constructively and Coping without suicidal behavior is associated with a reduction in suicide rates.

In 1970, Jerome A. Motto studied the incidence of suicide during a newspaper strike in Detroit from November 17, 1967 to August 10, 1968. There were no newspaper reports for 268 days. During this time, the suicide rate among women decreased in particular. There was a 75% decrease in suicide and attempted suicide. After the end of the strike , the suicide rate rose to the previous level.

literature

  • Jerome A. Motto: Newspaper Influence on Suicide: a Controlled Study in: Archives Of General Psychiatry , 23rd issue 2/1970, pages 143-148. doi : 10.1001 / archpsyc.1970.01750020047006
  • David P. Phillips: The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide: Nouns and Theoretical Implications of the Werther Effect. In: American Sociological Review. 39: 340-354 (1974).
  • Armin Schmidtke, Heinz Häfner : The mediation of suicide motivation and suicidal behavior through fictional models. The aftermath of the television series 'Death of a Student'. In: Neurologist. 1986, pp. 502-510.
  • Armin Schmidtke, Heinz Häfner: The Werther effect after television films: new evidence for an old hypothesis. In: Psychological Medicine. 18, 1988, pp. 665-676.
  • Holger Steinberg: The "Werther Effect". Historical origin and background of a phenomenon. In: Psychiatric Practice. 26, 1999, ISSN  0303-4259 , pp. 37-42.
  • Martin Andree: When texts kill. About Werther, media effects and media violence . Fink, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-7705-4316-5 .
  • Arno Herberth, Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Benedikt Till (eds.): Suicidality in the media. Interdisciplinary considerations. Suicidality in the Media. Interdisciplinary Contributions . Lit, Münster / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1641-4 .
  • Alice Ruddigkeit: The reverse Werther effect. A quasi-experimental study of suicide reporting and the German suicide rate. In: Journalism. 55, issue 3/2010, ISSN  0033-4006 , pp. 253-273.
  • Eckart Klaus Roloff : The difficult research into the Werther effect. In: Journalism. 55, issue 4/2010, ISSN  0033-4006 , pp. 427-430.
  • Carsten Reinemann, Sebastian Scherr: The Werther defect. A plea for a new look at the connection between suicidal behavior and the media. In: Journalism. 56, issue 1/2011, ISSN  0033-4006 , pp. 89-94.
  • Sebastian Scherr, Carsten Reinemann: Belief in a Werther effect: Third-person effects in the perceptions of suicide risk for others and the moderating role of depression. In: Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. 41 (2011), pp. 624-634, doi: 10.1111 / j.1943-278X.2011.00059.x .
  • Sebastian Scherr: Media and Suicides. Overview of communication science research on the Werther Effect. In: Suizidprophylaxe 40, issue 3/2013, ISSN  0173-458X , pp. 96-107 ( PDF; 0.5 MB )
  • Markus Schäfer, Oliver Quiring : Are there any indications of an 'Enke effect'? The press coverage of Robert Enke's suicide and the development of the suicide rate in Germany. In: Journalism. 58, issue 2/2013, ISSN  0033-4006 , pp. 141-160.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Benedikt Jeßing: Werther fever. In: Benedikt Jeßing, Bernd Lutz, Inge Wild (eds.): Metzler Goethe Lexikon. People - things - concepts . 2nd, improved edition. Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, p. 471.
  2. ↑ W. Ziegler, U. Hegerl: The Werther effect - meaning, mechanisms, consequences. In: Neurologist. Springer-Verlag 2002, p. 41.
  3. ↑ https://www.berner-buendnis-depression.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/werther-effekt.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/nid/20004859510
  5. ^ Gustav Radbruch , Heinrich Gwinner: History of the crime. An attempt at historical criminology. Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 310.
  6. ↑ Hans-Bernd Brosius , Walther Ziegler: essay mass media and suicide: practical consequences from the Werther effect in Communicatio Socialis 34 (2001), No. 1: 9–29; accessed in April 2016.
  7. ↑ Michael Kunczik, Astrid Zipfel: Violence and Media - A Study Guide. 5th edition. 2006, p. 94.
  8. ↑ Volker Faust: Suicide as an act of imitation - The "Werther Effect" as media-induced suicide. (PDF; 261 kB), in: Psychiatry Today.
  9. ↑ Death according to the pattern. In: Spiegel. No. 25, November 3, 1986.
  10. ↑ Michael Kunczik, Astrid Zipfel: violence and media. A study manual. UTB, 2006, p. 96.
  11. ↑ Michael Kunczik, Astrid Zipfel: Violence and Media - A Study Guide. 5th edition. 2006, p. 101.
  12. ↑ Christoph Cadenbach: The Enke Effect. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . Magazine issue 07/2010.
  13. ↑ Press release on Dead Girls Don't Lie.
  14. ↑ Madelyn S Gould, Marjorie H Kleinman, Alison M Lake, Judith Forman, Jennifer Bassett Midle: Newspaper coverage of suicide and initiation of suicide clusters in teenagers in the USA, 1988–96: a retrospective, population-based, case-control study . In: The Lancet Psychiatry . tape 1 , no. 1 , June 2014, ISSN  2215-0366 , p. 34–43 , doi : 10.1016 / s2215-0366 (14) 70225-1 ( elsevier.com [accessed June 24, 2018]).
  15. ↑ G. Sonneck, E. Etzersdorfer, S. Nagel-Kuess: Imitative suicide on the Viennese subway . In: Social Science & Medicine . tape 38 , no. 3 , February 1994, ISSN  0277-9536 , p. 453-457 , doi : 10.1016 / 0277-9536 (94) 90447-2 ( elsevier.com [accessed June 24, 2018]).
  16. ↑ presserat.info
  17. ↑ Top priority suicide reporting. Interview at the media journalism portal MedienMonitor, October 15, 2008.
  18. ↑ Rolv Werner Erichsen: For ytringsfrihet under ansvar. Norsk Presseforbund 1910/1935/1960. Bergen 1960, p. 277.
  19. ↑ Markus Schäfer, Oliver Quiring: Are there any indications of an “Enke effect”? - The press coverage of Robert Enke's suicide and the development of the suicide rate in Germany . In: Publizistik, 58 (2) . 2013, p. 141-161 .
  20. ↑ There is still plenty of room for improvement. Interview at the media journalism portal MedienMonitor, October 15, 2008.
  21. ^ "Suizid-Challenge" Blue Whale: What is behind it and how parents fight against it . In: Motherboard . June 20, 2017 ( vice.com [accessed June 24, 2018]).
  22. ↑ Papageno Effect Entry in the online lexicon for psychology and education, February 22, 2016
  23. ↑ Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Martin Voracek, Arno Herberth, Benedikt Till, Markus Strauss: Role of media reports in completed and prevented suicide: Werther v. Papageno effects . In: The British Journal of Psychiatry . tape 197 , no. 3 , 2010, ISSN  0007-1250 , p. 234–243 , doi : 10.1192 / bjp.bp.109.074633 ( cambridge.org [accessed June 24, 2018]).
  24. ↑ https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/faqs/news/strike.html
  25. ↑ Jerome A. Motto: Newspaper Influence on Suicide . In: Archives of General Psychiatry . tape 23 , no. 2 , August 1, 1970, ISSN  0003-990X , p. 143 , doi : 10.1001 / archpsyc.1970.01750020047006 ( jamanetwork.com [accessed June 24, 2018]).