September 29, 2021

"A large study by Jones, Bellet, and McNally found that trigger warnings reinforced the belief on the part of trauma survivors that trauma was central (rather than incidental or peripheral) to their identity."

"The reason that effect may be concerning is that trauma researchers have previously established that a belief that trauma is central to one’s identity predicts more severe P.T.S.D.; Bellet called this 'one of the most well documented relationships in traumatology.' The perverse consequence of trigger warnings, then, may be to harm the people they are intended to protect. In other respects, trigger warnings seem to have less impact than their critics have feared. Some opponents of trigger warnings seem to suppose that they are a way for students to demand that they not encounter ideas that challenge their beliefs.... Trigger-warning studies, however, have revealed that giving trigger warnings does not seem to result in recipients choosing to avoid the material. Instead, the warned individuals tended to forge ahead....  As the scientific consensus on trigger warnings develops further, it’s conceivable that universities might even begin to worry about liability arising from their myriad instructors acting in ways that are known not to help—and possibly to harm—students’ mental health. Perhaps what is called for is a more neutral and humble stance, in which instructors don’t approach pedagogy as if it were an adjunct of psychological care."

39 comments:

Critter said...

The research supports my view that trigger warnings were never intended to help people avoid unpleasant topics but rather a way of enforcing through a public statement from those in authority that something is really wrong but for a variety of reasons it is still allowed to exist and be included in public discourse. My view is that most trigger warnings are triggers to me over fear of leftist totalitarianism, a very real fear given the experience of the 20th century. If we take trigger warnings seriously, then I demand no mention of socialism, collectivism, post-modernism, nanny statism, AOC, etc. without a trigger warning.

I’ll settle for dropping my trigger warnings if leftists drop their trigger warnings.

rhhardin said...

There's the same result on treatment for child sexual abuse. You're denied (by therapist) any responsibility for your part in it, so that makes it out of your control.

"This therapeutic position can be harmful for the psychological development of the a child. Therapists simply think of and accept the child as a victim. They energetically reject and deny any attempt on the child's part to assume any responsibility for what happened or at least to recognize his or her own ambivalence. Therapists thereby impose a victim psychology upon the child, a psychology which says that for everything that happens there is always someone to blame. They nip in the bud the child's growing awareness that he is at least partly responsible for much that happens to him - or at least the back and forth tension between rejection and acceptance. This therapeutic position does not take the child sseriously as a human being. It sees the child solely as a mistreated, innocent victim. The child is no longer a part of creation with all its possibilities and contradictions, with its conflicting intincts and desires."

Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig, From the Other Side, p.61

I bought it for the chapter "The Blessings of Violence."

Jamie said...

That research seems to go beyond "what if trigger warnings don't work?" It seems to say trigger warnings are known to cause active harm. Headline writers...

Amexpat said...

Some trigger warnings border on the absurd. Andrew Hickey, in his excellent podcast about the history of rock music, issued an elaborate rape trigger warning at the start of his talk about the Rolling Stones' song Satisfaction. He made a big deal about how there would be a discussion about rape further on and he would alert listeners again right before the rape discussion.

The rape discussion that supposedly could trigger someone was about how Brian Jones was a sadist and hurt and raped a girl. The discussion wasn't graphic and I can't see how it would trigger anyone more than the repeated mentioning of rape in his trigger warnings.

Temujin said...

If you believe a random statement is harmful to you, and you focus on it, yeah...it'll probably make you less stable.

In another study, it seems the sun actually rises in the east, and- get this- we now believe the earth is actually moving around the sun, not the other way around, which we all believed for so long.

Another Plus! The article refers to 'scientific consensus', which is exactly how we once believed the sun moved around the earth.

wildswan said...

Simply warn that you are about to give a trigger warning. That way people can brace themselves to be warned that an alarm may occur which might cause existing alarm to become more alarming. And so, since the possibility exists of warnings suddenly frightening a college student, be sure to present your pre-trigger warning in a light-hearted way, perhaps putting on a red clown-nose. Or wear your furry suit and dance about for a bit before you pre-warn, trigger warn and then lecture on Preforeoredestination.

Conrad said...

I'm not a trained traumatologist, but it seems to me that trigger warnings are mostly being used in situations that do not involve actual trauma. If someone were involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of a loved one, that could of course have lasting, crippling psychological consequences. In that situation, it would seem reasonable to give the person a trigger warning before showing him or her images of a car accidents. However, requiring trigger warnings before a classroom discussion merely because the subject matter may remind the student of, for example, the existence of the racial prejudice can't possibly be justified as a necessary or reasonable mental health measure.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"... trauma researchers have previously established that a belief that trauma is central to one’s identity predicts more severe P.T.S.D."

This paper needs to be retracted immediately. There is no excuse for undercutting a carefully nurtured victim mentality.

RigelDog said...

This study confirms the obvious---that constant focus on, and re-living of, life's trauma and sorrows is BAD for one's mental health.

Here's the best piece of advice I have ever come across as far as dealing with a terrible occurrence in one's life: Tell the person who suffered the trauma, "You've had some awful things happen. They are a scary chapter, but they are not the Story of Your Life."

WK said...

Now we will need trigger warnings for trigger warnings. A trigger-warning warning?

jaydub said...

"What If Trigger Warnings Don’t Work?"

What a ridiculous question. There's an extensive grievance industry built on the requirement for trigger warnings. It doesn't matter whether they work or not. What matters is whether they can be used to compel speech and whether academics can make a few bucks off of them. So, they're very effective as regards their intended purpose.

cf said...

i can imagine regime media folks like @NPR being triggered at this information, since strategic triggering of their well-groomed herd is a prime directive.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

So all that stuff that great-grandpa (who was with the 101st ABN at Bastogne) said about sucking it up and acting like you got a pair was right after all? Quelle horreur!!!

Maynard said...

The "trauma" that college students experience is illustrated in a quote from the recent national survey of campus freedom of speech. An AA student criticized her college for not giving AA students time to heal from the "trauma" of being Black in college.

We are raising a nation of professional victims.

Michael K said...

Trigger warnings are the passive aggressive aspect of victim mentality. The "victim " controls others by requiring that they validate the nonsensical "trauma."

gilbar said...

In The Lord of The Ring (Vol3, book6, The Tower of Cirith Ungol) Frodo Says...
"they Stripped me of Everything; and then two great brutes came and questioned me,
questioned me until I thought I'd go mad, standing over me, gloating, fingering their knives.
I'll never forget their claws and eyes"

And Sam says...You Won't, if you talk about them, Mister Frodo

See?
In the Olden days (3,019th year of the Third Age) people thought they should GET OVER things,
instead of basing their lives on being a "survivor"
[admitly, Frodo never really Did recover; But, he HAD been through "a Lot" ]

Owen said...

Excellent comments. I agree that trigger warnings are lame and probably evil. They help authorities cover their arse and virtue-signal, thus are truly irresistible to the halfwits in charge. They also infantilize the reader: “You can’t handle reality!” And the standard to which they lower our awareness is, as always in these Nanny Projects, that of the most frail (and noisy) victim. Also: imaginary victims. No need for anyone to testify that some text or image sent xir into convulsions; it’s enough for the authorities to hypothesize that somebody might could maybe get a case of the sads.

madAsHell said...

However, requiring trigger warnings before a classroom discussion merely because the subject matter

When you have nothing to teach.......

Ron Winkleheimer said...

be sure to present your pre-trigger warning in a light-hearted way, perhaps putting on a red clown-nose

A man was going on an extended trip so he asked his brother to look after his cat while he was gone. Two days into the trip he called his brother and asked him how his cat was doing. The brother replied that the cat had died.

The man exclaimed, "What's wrong with you! That's not how you give someone bad news like that!"

"Well how should I give you bad news?" Said the brother.

"You should soften the blow, give the news a little at a time so I will be able to adjust to it. You should have told me that the cat had gotten on the roof, but you were going to get it down, and then the next time I called you could have told me that the cat had fallen and was hurt but you had taken it to the vet, and then finally, the next time I called you could tell me that the cat was dead."

"Fine," said the brother. "I will keep that in mind when giving you bad news from now on."

"So," the traveler asked, "how is dad doing?"

"He is up on the roof."

wild chicken said...

Wow, I totally agree with rhhardin's excerpt.

Agency in children or even teens has been conflated with legal competence. Those are two different things. Common law at least recognizes it in the rule of sevens.

God bless the child's who's got his own. There are an awful lot of terrible dysfunctional families out there and the shrinks don't seem to be helping.

Narayanan said...

trigger warning = to picking at scab and delay wound healing

Wa St Blogger said...

Trigger warnings don't exist as an attempt to protect the snowflake. They exist ad the camel's nose to eradicate wrongthink.

Step 1: trigger warning
Step 2: ban the material
Step 3: destroy the material
Step 4: punish anyone who still remembers the material

SGT Ted said...

This isn't new knowledge. PTSD is treated not with trigger warnings but by requiring the patient to work through whatever triggered them.

But the whole "trigger warnings" garbage was always just a vehicle for the SJW crowd to get preferential treatment over, as well as censor, other people, by appropriating the language of actual PTSD sufferers. Which is about as despicable as it comes.

"Trigger warnings" are merely another tool in the Cry-Bully toolbox to gain power over other people in order to control them and be the center of attention.

Michael said...

Trigger warnings, your truth. Such bullshit concepts pulled out of the asses of academics. Inane. Sophomoric.

Enigma said...

This was mainstream, accepted reality among clinical psychologists (counselors) until the last few years of the Noble Victim. Professionals once emphasized ways for people to do their best in the face of adversity.

We are now in a world where the loudest voices were formerly and commonly regarded as "Cry Babies" and "Chicken Littles."

What can recalibrate expectations to pragmatic and functional standards? Tougher moderates with the courage to shut down unrealistic nonsense?

Matt said...

"Trigger-warning studies, however, have revealed that giving trigger warnings does not seem to result in recipients choosing to avoid the material. Instead, the warned individuals tended to forge ahead"

Is there are better way to get someone to look at something than saying "don't look at this!"?

cubanbob said...

Somewhere in this there are plaintiff lawyers preparing for litigation.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The time has come to defund the Word Police. They are doing more harm than good in my community. We should replace them with therapists who can treat their anxiety at the root cause instead of changing our common tongue to indulge their insanity.

MadisonMan said...

Yes. If you expect people to be weak, they will, in general live down to your expectations. If you expect them to be strong, they might just surprise you and live up to them.

effinayright said...

The relentless pushing of the phrase "climate crisis" is an example of how the Green Weenies are scaring the shit out of our young people.

So you don't see them offering "trigger warnings" when they bring up the topic. They WANT their audiences to be afraid.

Coz it's REAL, bro! Y'all gonna DIE if you don't surrender your freedom to us!

SNORT

Sebastian said...

"The perverse consequence of trigger warnings, then, may be to harm the people they are intended to protect."

Why perverse? "Intended to protect"? No: trigger warnings are intended to trigger strong negative feelings, to stir and then exploit grievances, and thus to solidify a progressive regime that depends on its claim to protect various "victims." On larger scale, of course, this is what is being done to blacks.

Iman said...

It’s all ridiculous and only serves to extend the protected-in-a-bubble sort of childhood that these Not Ready For Adult Life brats have been gifted with.

Grow up, kids!

Wince said...

"Trigger Warning"?

Made me think of this Lynyrd Skynyrd poster from 1975.

Quaestor said...

Althouse has an education tag. Does she have a Bigfoot tag?

Cheryl said...

The results of this study remind me of teaching self-esteem. Turns out that high self-esteem is linked to psychopathy.

Valentine Smith said...

Loved Hardin's comment. Telling someone they are not guilty, ie. have no agency, does absolutely nothing to erase or even ease guilt. It all comes from the normal egocentricity that I associate with mere breathing.

Mrs. X said...

College English instructor here. I had a squad of students come to me demanding trigger warnings after I assigned Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” a story in which sexual violence is implied but not shown. I said, no, I couldn’t anticipate what students might find traumatic, and I didn’t want to affect student responses to the works by “warning” them ahead of time.

They were furious. Apparently, all other instructors complied, or that’s what the students told me. I said that if they wanted, they could meet with me individually during office hours before reading each work and I would let them know if there was anything “problematic.” That wasn’t good enough they said. Not an efficient use of their time. I politely insisted that this was the accommodation I would make, period. They never availed themselves of it, and they trashed me in student evals and on Rate My Professor. And I probably won’t teach the story again even though previous students and even others in the same class liked it. So I guess they won.

Narr said...

You know how I warm my trigger?

What? Warn?

Never mind.

PM said...

News for which the word Oy was invented.