Changes in suicide rates following media reports on celebrity suicide: a meta-analysis
Abstract
Background: A growing number of studies indicate that sensationalist reporting of suicide is associated with increases in suicide rates, but in the light of some negative findings, the issue has remained controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the best current evidence on the association between celebrity suicide stories and subsequent suicides. Methods: Literature searches of six data sources (Medline, Psychlit, Communication Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center, Dissertation Abstracts and Australian Public Affairs Database (APAIS)) were conducted. Studies were included if they (1) adopted an ecological design, (2) focused on celebrity suicide, (3) had completed suicide as outcome variable, (4) analysed suicide rates across all suicide methods, (5) used data from after World War II and (6) satisfied basic quality criteria. Results: 10 studies with totally 98 suicides by celebrities met the criteria. The pooled estimate indicated a change in suicide rates (suicides per 100 000 population) of 0.26 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.43) in the month after a celebrity suicide. There was substantial heterogeneity between studies, which was explained by the type of celebrity (entertainment elite vs others) and the region of study, as indicated by mixed-effects meta-regression. The region-of-study–specific effect of reporting a suicide by an entertainment celebrity was 0.64 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.73) in North America, 0.58 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.68) in Asia, 0.36 (95% CI −0.10 to 0.61) in Australia and 0.68 (95% CI 0.51 to 0.85) in Europe. There was no indication of publication bias. Conclusions: Reports on celebrity suicide are associated with increases in suicides. Study region and celebrity type appear to have an impact on the effect size.
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There is a small increase in suicide rates after a celebrity suicide, and the effect is larger when press guidelines are disregarded.
“There is a small increase in suicide rates after the suicide of a celebrity, and the effect is magnified when press guidelines for avoiding both explicit descriptions of the death and speculation about causes are disregarded.18”
From Suicide (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- Niederkrotenthaler, T., Fu, K.-W., Yip, P. S. F., Fong, D. Y. T., Stack, S., Cheng, Q., & Pirkis, J.
- Affiliations
- Medical University of Vienna (AT)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- School of Nursing, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- Wayne State University (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
- Venue
- Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2012-04-21
- Volume
- 66
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1037-1042
- ISSN
- 0141-7681 (ISSN-L)
- 0143-005X
- 1470-2738
- OpenAlex
- W2118356636
- Cited by
- 281
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Keywords
- celebrity suicide, media coverage of suicide, suicide rates, suicide contagion
- MeSH terms
- Famous Persons, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Mass Media, Suicide
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