Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria.
School for Mass Communication Research, University of Leuven, Belgium.
Soc Sci Med. 2019 Jul;232:489-498. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.04.007. Epub 2019 Apr 25.
The Netflix show 13 Reasons Why (2017) aroused widespread concern regarding potential contagious effects of its graphic depiction of an adolescent girl's suicide and the events that led to her death.
To explore the effects of the second season of the show in 2018.
We recruited a sample of young adults (ages 18-29; N = 729) with access to Netflix who completed surveys shortly before and one month after the release of the show's second season. Based on theories of narrative empathy, we hypothesized that those who discontinued watching the show would be most vulnerable to its adverse effects on suicide-relevant outcomes. We further identified a higher risk subset of viewers who were more likely to have stopped watching the first season (those currently enrolled in school) in order to observe if the show had more adverse effects on this audience. Finally, we examined effects of the show on all viewers' intentions to help a suicidal person as a prosocial consequence of viewing the entire second season. We used both covariance and "genetic" matching to control for selection effects.
In support of predictions, viewers who stopped watching the second season exhibited greater suicide risk and less optimism about the future than those who continued to the end. However, unexpectedly, current students who watched the entire second season reported declines in suicide ideation and self-harm relative to those who did not watch the show at all (ps < .01). Moreover, those who watched the entire second season were also more likely to express interest in helping a suicidal person, especially compared to those who stopped watching.
The results suggest that a fictional story with a focus on suicidal content can have both harmful and helpful effects.
网飞（Netflix）出品的电视剧《十三个原因》（2017 年）引起了广泛关注，其原因在于剧中对一位少女自杀及导致她死亡的一系列事件进行了生动刻画，可能会产生传染性影响。
探究该剧第二季（2018 年）的影响。
我们招募了一组年轻人（18-29 岁；N=729）作为样本，他们可以访问网飞，并在该剧第二季播出前后一个月内完成调查。基于叙事同理心理论，我们假设那些停止观看该剧的人最容易受到其对自杀相关结果的不利影响。我们还确定了一个风险较高的观众子集，他们更有可能因为第一季已经停播（目前在校就读）而停止观看该剧，以便观察该剧对这一观众群体是否有更多的不利影响。最后，我们观察了该剧对所有观众在观看整个第二季之后帮助自杀者的意愿的影响，将其作为观看该剧的一个亲社会结果。我们使用协方差和“遗传”匹配来控制选择效应。
支持预测的是，与那些坚持看完第二季的观众相比，那些中途停止观看第二季的观众表现出更大的自杀风险和对未来的悲观情绪。然而，出人意料的是，观看完第二季的在校学生报告称自杀意念和自残行为减少，而那些根本不看该剧的学生则没有（p<.01）。此外，与那些中途停止观看的观众相比，观看完第二季的观众更有可能表达对帮助自杀者的兴趣，尤其是那些观众。
结果表明，以自杀为主题的虚构故事可能既有有害影响，也有有益影响。
