Celeb influence prompting copycat suicides among fans.Washington, Oct 1 (ANI): The glamorisation Noun 1. glamorisation - the act of glamorizing; making something or someone more beautiful (often in a superficial way) glamorization, glamourisation, glamourization beautification - the act of making something more beautiful of celebrities taking their lives may lead to an increase in the probability of widespread copycat suicides A copycat suicide is defined as a duplication or copycat of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. , warns a new study from Queen Mary, University of London It is a research-based university, with a strong international reputation, and with twenty-four percent of its students coming from abroad.[4] Queen Mary incorporates several leading international research units such as the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, the . Dr. Alex Mesoudi has found evidence that the increasing reach and influence of the media, combined with a growing number of people assigned celebrity status, could increase the probability of widespread suicide pandemics. Copycat suicides occur when one person's suicide is at least partly caused by exposure to another person's suicide. Sociologists have proposed that clusters of suicides around the same time or geographical area may be caused by this copycat effect Copycat effect may refer to:
The researchers studied the behaviour of 1000 computer 'people', pre-programmed with the rules that govern how people learn from one another. Mesoudi has investigated the problem of copycat suicides to see whether suicidal behaviour in the population really does fit with sociologists' assumptions. Previous sociological research identified two kinds of suicide clusters. Mass clusters are suicides that occur around the same time but across an entire geographic region (eg. a country), and are often associated with media coverage of celebrity suicides, such as that of the musician Kurt Cobain. "The findings of the computer simulations strongly support the proposed link between the mass reporting of a prestigious celebrity's suicide and an increase in national suicide figures. This highlights the need for media guidelines that restrict the dissemination and glorification glo·ri·fy tr.v. glo·ri·fied, glo·ri·fy·ing, glo·ri·fies 1. To give glory, honor, or high praise to; exalt. 2. of suicides, as already introduced in many countries, such as Austria, Switzerland and Australia," said Mesoudi. Additionally, point clusters are suicides that occur around the same time and physical place, for example a number of suicides occurring in a school or hospital during a few weeks or months. Point clusters have been attributed to direct social learning, where people pick up information in their local social networks or communities. The results also showed that direct social learning does generate point clusters, but that this is partially mimicked by homophily-a situation where people who are independently predisposed pre·dis·pose v. pre·dis·posed, pre·dis·pos·ing, pre·dis·pos·es v.tr. 1. a. To make (someone) inclined to something in advance: to committing suicide tend to reside close to one another. "These findings suggest that social learning and homophily generate distinct types of clusters. By using this knowledge to distinguish between genuine copycat point clusters and homophilous point clusters, efforts to reduce socially influenced suicides might be more effectively targeted at the former," said Mesoudi. The study has been published in the journal PLoS ONE PLoS ONE is an open access, online scientific journal from the Public Library of Science. It covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine. Submissions go through pre-publication peer review but are not excluded on the basis of lack of perceived importance . (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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