This is getting downvoted, but it is in fact true. Copycat suicides are a very real phenomenon. In general, anything that heightens the mental availability of an action (how easy it is to recall) increases the probability of that action occurring. This causes news reports on suicides to increase incidence of suicide, news reports on mass shootings to increase incidence of mass shootings, and last but certainly not least controversially, violent actions in video games to be causally related to (though neither necessary, nor sufficient for) increases in violent behavior.
This is a basic fact of human neurology that many people have trouble accepting because of the illusion of free will they like to indulge in.
I believe you were down-voted because you made a somewhat bold claim without providing evidence. The idea that mass-shooting copycats === suicide copycats is extreme, because they are two very different phenomenas.
Yeah, no. It is not that simple. "News" tends to be sensationalist crap. Simply talking about it does not have to make it more likely. I do realize that it can make it more likely. But it depends a helluva lot on how that conversation happens.
Just because a lot of people fuck it up doesn't mean that speaking about it is the cause per se. Words have power for both good and evil.
Please, let's not promote the idea that we should be terrified of mentioning it. That deepens the problem.
This is mostly true, but I don't think the evidence is there for videogames. What you might find evidence for w.r.t videogames is that they'll change your behavioral responses under stress, for example having played many shooter games, and given a real gun, then put in a stressful situation, you're more likely to pull the trigger on another human than otherwise.
Reports on suicides influence people's choice of suicide method, but there is no evidence that they influence the choice of whether or not to commit suicide.
This is a basic fact of human neurology that many people have trouble accepting because of the illusion of free will they like to indulge in.