title: Determining the effects of films with suicidal content: a laboratory experiment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Media stories on suicide can increase suicidal ideation, but little is known about variations in media effects with regard to audience vulnerability and story contents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the impact of three drama films with suicidal content that varied with regard to the final outcome (suicide completion, mastery of crisis and death by natural causes) and tested the moderating effect of baseline suicidality of the participants on the effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Within a laboratory setting, we randomly assigned 95 adults to three film groups. We used questionnaires to analyse the effects of the films on mood, depression, life satisfaction, self-worth, assumed benevolence of the world and suicidality, as well as identification with the protagonist. We stratified the sample into participants with suicidal tendencies above and below the sample median.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The film that ended with the protagonist's suicide led to a deterioration of mood particularly in individuals with baseline suicidality below the median, who also experienced an increase in self-worth. Participants with stronger suicidal tendencies experienced a rise in suicidality that depended on their level of identification with the protagonist. The film featuring the main character positively coping with his crisis increased life satisfaction particularly among participants with higher suicidal tendencies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The effects of suicide-related media material seem to vary with individual vulnerability and with type of media portrayal. Individuals with lower vulnerability experience more emotional reactions when exposed to a film culminating in suicide, but individuals with higher vulnerability experience a rise in suicidal tendencies particularly if they identify with the protagonist who died by suicide. In contrast, portrayals of individual mastery of crisis may have beneficial effects in more vulnerable individuals.
authors.affiliation: Benedikt Till, DSc, Markus Strauss, BSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Gernot Sonneck, MD, Crisis Intervention Center and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria; Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, MD, PhD, MMSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria benedikt.till@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Benedikt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Till
authors.affiliation: Benedikt Till, DSc, Markus Strauss, BSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Gernot Sonneck, MD, Crisis Intervention Center and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria; Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, MD, PhD, MMSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.affiliation: Benedikt Till, DSc, Markus Strauss, BSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Gernot Sonneck, MD, Crisis Intervention Center and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria; Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, MD, PhD, MMSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gernot
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sonneck
authors.affiliation: Benedikt Till, DSc, Markus Strauss, BSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Gernot Sonneck, MD, Crisis Intervention Center and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria; Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, MD, PhD, MMSc, Suicide Research Unit, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Niederkrotenthaler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011897:Random Allocation; D012307:Risk Factors; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult