Werther effect: what it is and how it is related to chain suicides

Suicide is one of the most frequent forms of death and is in first position in prevalence among non-natural ones. Taking one's own life is an act in which the person actively seeks their own destruction, a search generally derived from profound mental and/or physical suffering.

But this act not only has an effect on the person who commits suicide but, in a similar way to other phenomena, can generate a pull effect that leads other vulnerable people to try to commit the same act. This is called the Werther effect..

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The Werther effect: what is it?

It receives the name of the Werther effect to that phenomenon by which the observation or notification of the suicide of a person leads another to try to imitate said death. Also known as the copycat effect, this is a problem that has become epidemic in some cases, leading to mass suicides.

We are facing an imitation behavior that usually occurs in a population at risk that sees suicide as a way of freeing themselves from suffering and that upon observing one or several cases with characteristics similar to their own, they may come to think of take life It is possible that the figure of the suicide or the act of suicide itself is idealized, or that the information available on the case in question suggests this as a course of action.

In general, the Werther effect can occur with any news of suicide, but it is much more evident when the death in question is of a person who is especially relevant or admired by a large number of people. Clear examples were the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Kurt Cobain.. However, in the latter case the number of deaths was lower than expected, it is speculated that this was probably due to the difficulty involved in the method used by the singer.

At a more private level, suicide attempts and/or completed suicides by close relatives and especially if were a reference figure, they pose a risk for other subjects in the environment to think or even imitate the act suicide. That is why it is more than advisable to work on this risk directly with the relatives of people who have committed suicide on a psychological level.

With regard to the population that can be more easily affected by this effect, it has been observed that as a general rule the younger population tends to be more influential, especially if they are in situations of risk of social exclusion. Likewise, another aspect that has been observed to be of great importance is the treatment given to the information: if suicide is seen and reflected as something shocking and sensationalist, generator of deep emotions, this can cause other people to also seek to generate these sensations in others through said media.

Likewise, it has been observed that the cases of suicides by strange means but relatively simple to carry out tend to be more striking and imitated. And it is that imitation usually occurs not only in the act of committing suicide but also in the methodology used. Also the level of detail and information regarding the case in question and the explanation of the methods used seem to facilitate more imitation attempts by other people.

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Origin of the term and relationship with suicide

The Werther effect gets its name from the novel The sorrows of young Werther of Goethe, in which the protagonist (Werther) ends his own life he after being in love with Lotte for many years, a married woman who cannot correspond to him. The publication of this novel in 1774 was a great commercial success, being the equivalent of a bestseller. current, but the authorities observed that many young people committed suicide in a similar way to the protagonist a short time after.

In 1974 the sociologist David Phillips would carry out a study in which he observed that the number of suicides increased due to the publication of news related to this topic, going on to baptize this effect as the Werther effect.

The Papageno Effect

Throughout this article we have been able to see how the treatment of information regarding a consummated suicide can, in fact, lead to a copycat effect being generated in other people. However, fortunately we can also find an effect that we could consider opposite: the Papageno effect,

This effect occurs when the information that is transmitted does not focus so much on the fact of suicide but on the existence of alternatives. With the Papageno effect we refer to that situation in which the exposure to information has been regarding people who have gotten ahead despite experiencing adverse situations similar to those that the person at risk may be living, or even to cases of suicide attempts not fatal in which the subject has found other ways to end their suffering without resorting to self-inflicted death.

This generates the visualization of alternatives to suicide and examples of improvement that can persuade people at risk to try to take the same path. The name of the effect comes from a famous character in the Magic Flute, who precisely aborts a suicide attempt when three spirits make him think of alternatives.

Final consideration: the importance of working on prevention

All of the above should make us see the great importance of working on suicide prevention from many different fields. Efforts must be made to ensure that suicide is not seen as a desirable or shocking alternative, but rather as something to be avoided, and it must be Invest in prevention at school and in the media, based on the observation of different ways of dealing with difficulties.

With regard to information or journalistic level, it is worth noting the need to give as little information as possible about the fact in question but without making this action a simple fact, avoid morbid elements and treatment sensationalist.

Although it may seem obvious, suicide should never be idealized or presented as romantic or as a means to achieve goals. It could also be useful to present in the same news possible aid mechanisms or alternatives for action to people in the same situation, or testimonies of cases in which alternatives to the suicide.

Bibliographic references:

• Alvarez Torres, S.M. (2012). Werther effect: an intervention proposal in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. Mental Health North, 42: 48-55.
• Herrera, R.; Ures, M.B. and Martinez, J.J. (2015). The treatment of suicide in the Spanish press: Werther effect or Papageno effect? Rev. Assoc. Esp. Neuropsych., 35 (125). 123-134.
• Muller, G. (2011). The Werther Effect- Management of suicide information by the Spanish press in the case of Antonio Flores and its impact on recipients. Information Management Notebooks: 65-71.