Citation

Chen Y, Yan F, He G, Yan W. Poetics 2020; 81.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101441

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

While most extant studies have suggested that the Werther effect can be found via news and electronic media, whether books would have a similarly independent role on suicide suggestion remains unknown. Based on the Google Books N-gram corpus, we constructed the first macro-level index of suicides via books (ISB) and examined the potential association between ISB and actual completed suicides in the United States between 1950 and 2000. To rule out the possible influence of alternative mass media, we construct relevant measures by using the New York Times corpus and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The results from Granger causality test reveals that suicides in nonfiction rather than fiction books significantly predict actual suicide rates during the second half of the twentieth century, extensively controlling for suicides in other media as well as context factors. With such novel application of massive content analysis using data of unprecedented size, we contribute to the extant literature not only by adding to our understandings of the important role of media in shaping the process of suicide contagion but also the dynamics of suicidal behavior and the relevant cultural trends that may not be adequately measured with traditional social science methods. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Werther effect; Suicide suggestion; Google books