Trigger warning

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With the term trigger warning refers to a warning of possible triggering stimuli (triggers, English trigger ).

Internet forums

Internet forums , which are used for self-help, for example in the case of post-traumatic stress disorders , contain a warning about possible triggers at the beginning of a post . This is intended to warn a person who has experienced life-threatening things against an unwanted memory of the stressful situation through reports from others. Otherwise, intensive reports and discussions can trigger one's own stress, which causes fear reactions. Such a trigger can, for example, be the description of sexual abuse . In people who have been the victims of abuse or bullying or similar stressors, this can lead to strong feelings of fear and panic or self-harming behavior . To warn of these potential triggers, additional blank lines are usually added to the message , similar to spoiler warnings ; Trigger warnings are therefore often referred to analogously as spoilers .

The guidelines of some self-help forums recommend or even require the use of such warnings.

In the university environment

Particularly on Anglo-Saxon universities are political activists have been using as the 2000s, starting from the social sciences to ensure that content that could act injurious to a religious, cultural, sexual or other minorities, banished from the public or with so-called trigger warnings are provided to the Safely shield campus from threatening ideas. This form of censorship is viewed critically by large parts of science and society, as it inhibits critical discussion and diversity of opinion at universities. For example, critical authors would be excluded from discussions in order to take into account the feelings of some participants. The authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt see among other things the consequences of an emotionally overprotected childhood ( generation Snowflake ), which did not adequately prepare the current students for campus life.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Peter Ertle: Kulturphänomene (95): The trigger warning. In: tagblatt.de. February 28, 2015, accessed September 16, 2015 .
  2. Kate Manne: Why I use trigger warnings . In: The New York Times . September 20, 2015, p. SR5 (English, online [accessed October 30, 2017]).
  3. https://quillette.com/2018/09/02/is-safetyism-destroying-a-generation/
  4. ^ The Guardian: Is free speech in British universities under threat?
  5. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (2018): The coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a generation for failure. Penguin Press, 352 pages.