The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide: Substantive and Theoretical Implications of the Werther Effect

This paper shows that suicides increase immediately after a suicide story has been publicized in the newspapers in Britain & the USA, 1947-68. The more publicity devoted to a suicide story, the larger the rise in suicides thereafter. The rise is restricted mainly to the area in which the sorty was publicized. Alternative explanations of the findings are examined. The substantive, theoretical & methodological implications of these findings are examined. (30 refs.)