In an attempt to assess what adolescents think they would do if they knew of previous adolescent suicides, 116 high school students viewed a videotaped vignette of a distressed high school student & were asked to imagine that they were she. They were given an information sheet summarizing the vignette – one-third had an embedded sentence that 2 friends had recently committed suicide, another third a sentence that 2 friends had recently died in an airplane crash, & the last third had no embedded sentence. Subjects were then asked to rate the likelihood they would engage in various behaviour alternatives & the degree to which they blamed the various situational factors described in the vignette. Subjects also completed the Reasons for Living Inventory. The only significant difference across groups was the significantly higher score of the suicide group on the fear of social disapproval scale on the Reasons for Living Inventory. Adolescents may not be influenced by news about suicide or they may just deny such influence. (27 refs.)