Today, every major news organization announced the death of Alexander McQueen. I do not take this lightly, nor do I want anyone to think I’m in anyway making fun of this situation. I do think it is very important that people know how damaging these stories can be to many people’s lives.

David Phillips pointed out in a research paper in 1974 that immediately following a front-page suicide story, the suicide rate increases dramatically in all areas in which the suicide was highly publicized. Phillips found that certain troubled people who read of another’s self-inflicted death kill themselves. People’s decisions are highly motivated by the acts of others, especially when they can relate to the person. If they are indeed troubled and see that another troubled individual decided to end his life, they follow through with the act themselves. Today, because Alexander McQueen is well known, there is a strong chance that people’s emotions will act in the extreme because of the shock involved.

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