############################Hi TOK Folks,
Someone backchanneled me this article forwarded from Ken Pope’s list serve on trigger warnings. See below. Summary is that the overall picture does not offer strong endorsement of their utility, at least from the empirical findings gathered to date, and is probably more likely to enhance a trauma-victim narrative overall.
I think the debates around trigger warnings highlight one of the most central dilemmas in today’s world, which is the tension between (and massive polarization around) creating safe, equitable environments that enable people of all stripes and backgrounds to navigate and have access without undue hardship or marginalization AND ensuring folks are accountable and responsible for their own vulnerabilities, weaknesses and are not celebrated or reinforced or coddled for a victim identity that sometimes can be too easily claimed and asserted, especially if rights are being proclaimed absent equal focus on responsibility. The stoic philosophy is a good guide on this latter point, and it is something that was central to Jordan Peterson’s rise.
Note that the social/relational motivational dynamics on this tension can be framed by the Influence Matrix. If folks are interested in hearing more, I can elaborate.
Best,
Gregg
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Ken Pope <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020, 06:31:08 AM PDT
Subject: Helping or Harming? Effect of Trigger Warnings on People w/ Trauma Histories—Random Assignment Study of 451 Trauma Survivors
Clinical Psychological Science has scheduled a study for publication in a future issue: "Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals With Trauma Histories.”
The authors are Payton J. Jones, Benjamin W. Bellet, & Richard J. McNally.
Here’s how it opens:
[begin excerpt]
Giving a trigger warning means providing prior notification about forthcoming content that may be emotionally disturbing (Boysen, 2017). In this sense, trigger warnings are similar to PG-13 or “viewer discretion advised” warnings that are common across many different forms of media. Trigger warnings are distinct in that they originated as a measure of protection specifically for survivors of trauma. For people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), viewing reminders of trauma can spark painful reexperiencing symptoms (e.g., flashbacks; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Trigger warnings originated in online discussion groups for survivors of sexual trauma in which individuals would warn readers before discussing their experiences. Since their inception, trigger warnings have expanded far beyond the boundaries of specialized online communities. Trigger warnings are now used in educational settings, social media, entertainment, and other venues. In addition to their expansion in setting, they have also expanded in scope beyond sexual violence (Wilson, 2015).
Trigger warnings have sparked considerable debate in higher education. Proponents of trigger warnings have emphasized their importance in creating an inclusive atmosphere for disadvantaged groups on campus (e.g., Karasek, 2016). They have argued that trigger warnings provide agency to engage or not to engage and that they allow trauma survivors to adequately prepare to engage with difficult material. Critics have suggested that trigger warnings imperil free speech, academic freedom, and effective teaching, which prevents students from engaging with challenging material (e.g., Ellison, 2016). Other critics have suggested that trigger warnings foster unreasonable expectations about the world, hampering natural resilience among young people (e.g., Lukianoff & Haidt, 2015). Furthermore, trigger warnings could also be problematic for trauma survivors in particular (McNally, 2016). People who view trauma as a core part of their identity have worse symptoms (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006; Brown, Antonius, Kramer, Root, & Hirst, 2010; Robinaugh & McNally, 2011). Therefore, trigger warnings might iatrogenically reinforce the importance of past traumatic events for the very people they were originally designed to help.
The arguments surrounding trigger warnings are often complex. Before diving into this complexity, a much more basic question should be answered: Do trigger warnings actually work? That is, do they help trauma survivors emotionally prepare to engage with difficult material? From the vantage point of clinical science, trigger warnings are a type of community-based clinical intervention intended to foster emotional well-being among trauma survivors. Yet because of their grassroots origin in a nonclinical setting, trigger warnings have expanded for years without the rigorous scientific evaluation that normally accompanies such interventions.
[end excerpt]
Another excerpt: "Trauma survivors (N = 451) were randomly assigned to either receive or not to receive trigger warnings before reading passages from world literature. We found no evidence that trigger warnings were helpful for trauma survivors, for participants who self-reported a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis, or for participants who qualified for probable PTSD, even when survivors’ trauma matched the passages’ content. We found substantial evidence that trigger warnings countertherapeutically reinforce survivors’ view of their trauma as central to their identity."
Here’s how the Discussion section opens: "Past research has indicated that trigger warnings are unhelpful in reducing anxiety. The results of this study are consistent with that conclusion. This study was the first to focus on how trigger warnings function in a sample of people who had survived Criterion A trauma as defined by the DSM–5 (APA, 2013). Trigger warnings did not reduce anxiety for this sample broadly. Trigger warnings also did not reduce anxiety among people who met a clinical cutoff for PTSD symptoms, reported a diagnosis of PTSD, or reported that the stimuli matched the content of their past trauma. Trigger warnings showed trivially small effects on response anxiety overall. When effects did emerge, they tended toward small increases in anxiety rather than decreases."
Another excerpt:
[begin excerpt]
We found substantial evidence that giving trigger warnings to trauma survivors caused them to view trauma as more central to their life narrative. This effect is a reason for worry. Some trigger warnings explicitly suggest that trauma survivors are uniquely vulnerable (e.g., “ . . . especially in those with a history of trauma”). Even when trigger warnings mention content only, the implicit message that trauma survivors are vulnerable remains (Why else provide a warning?). These messages may reinforce the notion that trauma is invariably a watershed event that causes permanent psychological change. In reality, a majority of trauma survivors are resilient, experiencing little if any lasting psychological changes as a result of their experience (Bonanno, 2004; Bonanno & Mancini, 2008). Aggregated across various types of trauma, just 4% of potentially traumatic events result in PTSD (Liu et al., 2017).2 However, trauma survivors who view their traumatic experience as central to their life have elevated PTSD symptoms (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006; Brown et., 2010; Robinaugh & McNally, 2011). Trauma centrality prospectively predicts elevated PTSD symptoms, whereas the reverse is not true (Boals & Ruggero, 2016). Decreases in trauma centrality mediated therapy outcomes (Boals & Murrell, 2016). This suggests that increasing trauma centrality is directly countertherapeutic. In other words, trigger warnings may harm survivors by increasing trauma centrality.
We tested whether the severity of PTSD symptoms in our sample moderated any of our tested hypotheses. In most cases, we found either evidence for no moderation or ambiguous evidence. However, we did find substantial evidence that PTSD symptoms moderated the effect of trigger warnings on response anxiety. For individuals who had more severe PTSD, trigger warnings increased anxiety. This effect is ironic in the sense that trigger warnings may be most harmful for the individuals they were designed to protect. We found no evidence that individuals’ prior exposure to trigger warnings moderated any of the previous effects.
[end excerpt]
TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE ARTICLE: Contact info for reprint requests and questions or other correspondence about this article: Payton J. Jones, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138 E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Ken Pope
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