Suicide Can Be “Contagious” Says Science
Seeing the title of this article automatically fills your head with scenes from films where a supernatural force causes people to take their own lives after being exposed to it. Facts usually are more terrifying than fiction as it turns out there’s truth to this idea, it’s called Suicide Contagion and it’s on the rise. This contagion is not viral or bacterial but a psychological trigger. The concept of Suicide Contagion (also referred to as Copycat Suicide) has been around since the 18th century and was known as the Werther effect. This phenomenon was named after the main character in the 1779 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. The book became popular in Europe to the point that many people began to emulate portions of the story into their daily lives such as men dressing in the same fashion as Werther, and painted porcelain (that was mentioned in the book) began to appear in shops.
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