This goes along with a piece in Cialdini's book, Influence, in which he talks about a social comparison effect. In fact, many school shootings and other mass events go intentionally underreported because people really see these events as 'acceptable' ways to express one's angst. Similarly for suicides at schools--there is an attempt to not publicize them for fear that others will see that as a workable solution to one's life problems. I believe Cialdini cites references for spikes or clusters of suicides.
Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 19:50:11 EDT >From: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [tips] gunman opens fire in Binhampton, NY >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > Hi, > > There is probably no steady long term increase > however there MAY be some short term "bumps" or > "spikes" due to a vicarious reinforcement effect. > This journalistic piece from On The Media stuck with > me when I heard it 2.5 years ago. > > http://onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_100606_c.html > > Nancy Melucci > Long Beach City College > Long Beach CA > Make a Small Loan, Make a Big Difference - Check out > Kiva.org to Learn How! > > In a message dated 4/3/2009 4:30:09 P.M. Pacific > Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > > On Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:43:04 -0700, Paul Okami > writes: > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/nyregion/04hostage.html?hp > > > >I'm well aware of the impact of the availability > heuristic and mass media > >portrayals on people's beliefs about the > incidence of various crimes (e.g., > >child kidnappings and such). That said, is it > just my imagination or has there > >*really been* a substantial and scary increase in > the number of deranged > >individuals opening fire on groups of innocent > people over the past two or > >three decades? (I'm excluding war-time > atrocities here). > > The simple asnwer to your question appears to be > "No". I assume > that you're referring to "mass murders" in > contrast to serial murderers > (i.e., the murderer kills more than 4 people in a > limited period of time). > There probably is good data on this but I haven't > been able to find it > (I haven't been looking long, though). There is > an interesting passage > on mass murder in Elliot Leyton's "Hunting Humans" > which is available > on books.google.com at: > > http://books.google.com/books?id=nhARuP0vLgMC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&dq=%22mass+murder%22+frequency+fbi&source=bl&ots=d21KQ6PHCI&sig=rdy9tpg1_zXji5UKhBAPll0D8XY&hl=en&ei=_5PWSeTmLoTWlQfw-5ndDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 > or > http://tinyurl.com/c3lejc > > An interesting comment made by Leyton is that mass > murderers > have not been analyzed much by the FBI (it's "not > a police problem") > and there's no evidence that there has been an > increase in recent years. > Between 1976 and 1989, there was an average of 2 > mass murders > every month in the U.S. Again, there may be more > recent data. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > ------------------------------------------------ > > Hurry! April 15th is almost here. File your Federal > taxes FREE with TaxACT. > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
