Comments on: The Media Noose: Copycat Suicides and Social Learning

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 21:05:22 +0000

Tim Rogers and ex intelligence officer Brian Gerrish showing the evidence of who and what caused the Bridgend suicides. Please watch and spread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceLIJgu7PR4&feature=plcp

By: J. Goard

J. Goard — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:31:38 +0000

@Caledonian:

Well, in general we’re pretty bad at cognizing nonexistence, which is part of why we have so much belief in the afterlife, ghosts, ancestor worship, etc. Anecdotally, it seems like many suicides imagine experiencing the reactions of other people in some way, while still other suicides imagine ending the pain but continuing to be tranquilly conscious, like sleeping late or being really high.

By: Caledonian

Caledonian — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:46:40 +0000

I wonder: to what degree can an act of suicide be a means of creating solidarity with a social group? It’s an odd way to assert belonging with others, but I guess some people really would jump off a bridge if enough others were doing it.

By: John

John — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:38:04 +0000

I read somewhere (I don’t remember where) that after a well-publicized suicide, the number of suicides goes up for awhile, then dips below normal, and then goes back to equilibrium. In other words, people that were going to commit suicide do so earlier, but the total number of suicides doesn’t change.

By: Caledonian

Caledonian — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:45:35 +0000

I never found the ‘copycat as learning’ idea to be especially useful. Most people just aren’t very creative – when push comes to shove, their thoughts flow in the same ruts as everyone else’s.

Copycat events thus take place because the recent memory to the associations left in the public’s mind make the action more conceivable.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:36:35 +0000

From a libertarian or liberal point of view, epidemiological treatments of the role of communication in influencing voluntary behavior run the risk of encouraging or enabling authoritarian or social engineering approaches to communication at the expense of free speech.

Pretty much anything (good, bad, or neutral) can be epidemiologically treated — the spread of musical or other styles, religions, political movements, sexual practices, slang, etc. Suicide is obviously a bad thing, so you can calculate its spread and then look for vectors like death metal, goths, black T-shirts, pictures of skulls, etc.

By: Bayes

Bayes — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:11:11 +0000

Interesting. I wish I’d read Shalizi & Thomas’ paper before writing this post… Although, as far as I can tell from a cursory glance, they only use random copying in their model.

By: TGGP

TGGP — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:41:08 +0000

Cosma Shalizi on the topic:
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/656.html