Predicting Intentions to Read Suicide Awareness Stories
The Role of Depression and Characteristics of the Suicidal Role Model
Abstract
Abstract.Background: Research on factors that influence the intention to read suicide awareness material is lacking. Aims: To identify how social and state similarities between the featured protagonist of a suicide awareness story and the audience impact on the intent to read similar stories. Method: Laboratory experiment with n = 104 students. Participants were randomly assigned to study groups. In the first group, the role model provided his personal story of crisis and was a student. In the second group, the content was identical but the model was socially dissimilar. The third group read about a topic unrelated to suicide. Depression, identification, and exposure intent were measured after the experiment. Conditional process analysis was carried out. Results: In the group featuring a once-suicidal role model with high social similarity, depression in the audience increased the intention to read similar material in the future via identification with the role model; 82% of individuals wanted to read similar material in the future, but only 50% wanted to do so in the group featuring a dissimilar person. Conclusion: Exposure intention increases via identification when role model and audience characteristics align regarding social traits and the experience of depression. These factors are relevant when developing campaigns targeting individuals with stories of recovery.
References
Amos [Computer software]. Meadville, PA: Amos Development Corporation.
1993). Watching Dallas. London, UK: Routledge.
(Effects of suicide awareness material on implicit suicide cognition: A laboratory experiment. Health Communication.
(in press).1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
(1996). Identification as a mediator of celebrity effects. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 40, 478–495.
(2006). Mental health promotion – a lifespan approach. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press.
(2001). Defining identification: A theoretical look at the identification of audiences with media characters. Mass Communication & Society, 4, 245–264.
(2007). Smoking in movies, implicit associations of smoking with the self, and intentions to smoke. Psychological Science, 18, 559–563.
(2013). Using a health message with a testimonial to motivate colon cancer screening: Associations with perceived identification and vividness. Health Education & Behavior, 40, 673–682.
(1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
(2009). Estimating the risk for suicide following the suicide deaths of 3 Asian entertainment celebrities: A meta-analytic approach. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 70, 869–878.
(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
(2005). Young adults' wishful identification with television characters: The role of perceived similarity and character attributes. Media Psychology, 7, 325–351.
(1991).
(Perceiving and responding to mass media characters . In J. BryantD. ZillmannEds., Responding to the screen: Reception and reaction processes (pp. 63–101). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.2003). Perceiving and experiencing fictional characters: An integrative account. Japanese Psychological Research, 45, 250–268.
(1994). Fewer reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The Brief Reasons for Living Inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 16, 1–13.
(1983). Erlanger Depressions-Skala EDS
([Erlangen depression scale EDS] . Vaterstetten, Germany: Vless.2014). The way forward: Pathways to hope, recovery, and wellness with insights from lived experiences. Washington, DC: Author.
. (2012). Changes in suicide rates following media reports on celebrity suicide: A meta-analysis. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 66, 1037–1042.
(2014). Increasing help-seeking and referrals for individuals at risk for suicide by decreasing stigma: The role of mass media. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47, 235–243.
(2009). Copycat effects after media reports on suicide: A population-based ecologic study. Social Science & Medicine, 69, 1085–90.
(1990). Divorce, suicide, and the mass media: An analysis of differential identification, 1948–1980. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 553–560.
(1992).
(Social correlates of suicide by age. Media impacts . In A. A. LeenaarsEd., Life span perspectives of suicide: Time lines in the suicidal process (pp. 187–214). New York, NY: Plenum.2014, August). Does treatment or intimate relationships prevent suicide? An analysis of 100 suicide attempt movies. Paper presented at the 15th European Symposium on Suicide & Suicidal Behavior (ESSSB15), Tallinn, Estonia.
(2012). Stories of hope and recovery: A video guide for suicide attempt survivors. Retrieved from http://store.samhsa.gov/product/Stories-Of-Hope-And-Recovery-A-Video-Guide-for-Suicide-Attempt-Survivors/SMA12-4711DVD
. (2013). Who identifies with suicidal film characters? Determinants of identification with suicidal protagonists of drama films. Psychiatria Danubina, 25, 158–162.
(2010). Suicide in films: The impact of suicide portrayals on non-suicidal viewers' well-being and the effectiveness of censorship. Suicide and& Life-Threatening Behavior, 40, 319–27.
(2013). Reasons to love life: Effects of a suicide awareness campaign on the utilization of a telephone emergency line in Austria. Crisis, 34, 382–389.
(2015). Determining the effects of films with suicidal content: A laboratory experiment. British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(1), 72–78.
(2013). Personal suicidality in the reception of and identification with suicidal film characters. Death Studies, 37, 383–392.
(2001). Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 815–827.
(2014). Preventing suicide – a global imperative. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/suicide-prevention/world_report_2014/en/
. (1996).
(The psychology of suspense in dramatic exposition . In P. VordererH. J. WulffM. FriedrichsenEds., Suspense: Conceptualizations, theoretical analyses, and empirical explorations (pp. 199–231). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.