Does the effect of media influence suicide rates?

Abstract

Purpose

An important question about the determinants of suicide refers to the role of media. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are groups of people who are susceptible to suicide as a result of the effect of media.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data for the 27 Brazilian states, for the period 1980-2009, to investigate the impact of the media index, unemployment rate, divorce rate and other explanatory variables on the rate of suicide by gender and age. First of all, the authors estimated a model of fixed effects panel. The second estimation method makes use of dynamic panel data with instrumental variables. Each of the results generated by these two estimated models is compared with those obtained by ordinary least squares in stacked data. The authors develop a model about the suicide epidemic where the media works as a contagion effect to disseminate suicidal behavior.

Findings

The authors observe that, the media index is the third motivator of suicide, after unemployment and violence, for all groups of people. The estimated model shows that 1 percent increase in media index increases suicide rate of young men (aged between 15 and 29 years) at 4.22 percent.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical results are limited because the authors developed a media index based on quantities of televisions and radios. The authors suggest other research include social media in the index as well.

Originality/value

This result seems to suggest a type of contagion effect on suicide rates, which reinforces the results obtained by Cutler et al. (2001).

Citation

Loureiro, P.R.A., Moreira, T.B.S. and Sachsida, A. (2015), "Does the effect of media influence suicide rates?", Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 415-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/JES-08-2013-0106