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That is an excerpt from a book about using psychology for the purposes of persuasion in marketing. It was not a study on the memetic effects of suicide reportin

That is an excerpt from a book about using psychology for the purposes of persuasion in marketing. It was not a study on the memetic effects of suicide reporting, which aspects of the reporting might contribute to contagion, or a treatise on untreated depression or suicide. I read that PDF. Twice. It makes some ... great leaps of conclusion and assumption, without much in the way of investigation or data. It concludes for example that young people intentionally fatally drove their cars into trees because they read articles about suicide, but it presents no actual evidence for that case other than a statistical correlation. As is mentioned frequently on HN, correlation in statistics is tricky: http://tylervigen.com/ http://tylervigen.com/ I don't think we have enough information at hand to suppress discussion of depression or suicide.

dang 12y ago
Of course the chapter isn't itself a study of the effects of suicide reporting—it's an overview of such studies. It's an excerpt from a well-known popular treatment of social psychology, written by a researcher and duly stocked with references [1]. Assuming that Cialdini isn't misrepresenting that literature, I don't see how anyone without a preconceived opinion wouldn't take serious pause at the findings he reports. If you're going to dismiss them you'll need to do a lot better than the usual handwave about correlation. Let's hear from someone who knows about the latest work on this, or some evidence that those findings are bogus. 1. I mean the book, not the pdf. Obviously I would link to the book if I could; it happens not to be online. The pdf is, and it at least covers the main points (as I recall them—I read the book years ago).
- thaumaturgy 12y ago
  > Let's hear from someone who knows about the latest work on this, or some evidence that those findings are bogus. We won't get to, because every time the subject comes up now on HN, someone says, "don't talk about this, it's dangerous."
  - dang 12y ago
    I know it's tricky, because it's a subject that evokes strong feelings (in me too), but a substantive post on serious research into this would not be off topic here.

dang 12y ago

Of course the chapter isn't itself a study of the effects of suicide reporting—it's an overview of such studies. It's an excerpt from a well-known popular treatment of social psychology, written by a researcher and duly stocked with references [1]. Assuming that Cialdini isn't misrepresenting that literature, I don't see how anyone without a preconceived opinion wouldn't take serious pause at the findings he reports. If you're going to dismiss them you'll need to do a lot better than the usual handwave about correlation. Let's hear from someone who knows about the latest work on this, or some evidence that those findings are bogus. 1. I mean the book, not the pdf. Obviously I would link to the book if I could; it happens not to be online. The pdf is, and it at least covers the main points (as I recall them—I read the book years ago).

thaumaturgy 12y ago
> Let's hear from someone who knows about the latest work on this, or some evidence that those findings are bogus. We won't get to, because every time the subject comes up now on HN, someone says, "don't talk about this, it's dangerous."
- dang 12y ago
  I know it's tricky, because it's a subject that evokes strong feelings (in me too), but a substantive post on serious research into this would not be off topic here.