The New York Times (8/14, Sanger-Katz, Subscription Publication) reports in “The Upshot” that “there’s a strong body of evidence that suicide is…contagious,” and that “publicity surrounding a suicide has been repeatedly and definitively linked to a subsequent increase in suicide, especially among young people.”
For that reason, “suicide prevention advocates have developed guidelines for news media coverage of suicide deaths.” The goal is not to glamorize suicide “or to make it seem like a simple or inevitable solution for people who are at risk.”
Related Links:
— “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times, August 13, 2014.