Werther effect
E627862
The Werther effect is a social phenomenon in which widely publicized suicides, especially of famous or fictional individuals, lead to an increase in imitative suicides among vulnerable people.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Werther effect canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6907738 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Werther effect Context triple: [The Sorrows of Young Werther, associatedPhenomenon, Werther effect]
-
A.
Rubin–Ford effect
The Rubin–Ford effect is an observed large-scale motion of galaxies relative to the cosmic microwave background that provided early evidence for peculiar velocities and inhomogeneities in the universe’s expansion.
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B.
Hysteria
Hysteria is a 2011 British romantic comedy film in which Rupert Everett co-stars in a fictionalized account of the invention of the vibrator in Victorian London.
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C.
Hysteria
"Hysteria" is a poem by T. S. Eliot that captures a moment of emotional intensity and disquiet through fragmented, modernist imagery and introspective observation.
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D.
Hysteria
Hysteria is Def Leppard’s massively successful 1987 hard rock album, renowned for its polished production, multiple hit singles, and status as one of the defining rock records of the 1980s.
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E.
Liebowitz
Liebowitz is a surname most notably associated with Ronald D. Liebowitz, an American academic administrator and university president.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Werther effect Target entity description: The Werther effect is a social phenomenon in which widely publicized suicides, especially of famous or fictional individuals, lead to an increase in imitative suicides among vulnerable people.
-
A.
Rubin–Ford effect
The Rubin–Ford effect is an observed large-scale motion of galaxies relative to the cosmic microwave background that provided early evidence for peculiar velocities and inhomogeneities in the universe’s expansion.
-
B.
Hysteria
Hysteria is a 2011 British romantic comedy film in which Rupert Everett co-stars in a fictionalized account of the invention of the vibrator in Victorian London.
-
C.
Hysteria
"Hysteria" is a poem by T. S. Eliot that captures a moment of emotional intensity and disquiet through fragmented, modernist imagery and introspective observation.
-
D.
Hysteria
Hysteria is Def Leppard’s massively successful 1987 hard rock album, renowned for its polished production, multiple hit singles, and status as one of the defining rock records of the 1980s.
-
E.
Liebowitz
Liebowitz is a surname most notably associated with Ronald D. Liebowitz, an American academic administrator and university president.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
copycat suicide effect
ⓘ
media contagion effect ⓘ social phenomenon ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
media coverage of suicide
ⓘ
suicidal ideation contagion ⓘ vulnerable individuals ⓘ |
| concerns |
individuals identifying with suicide victims
ⓘ
individuals with pre-existing mental health problems ⓘ vulnerable adolescents ⓘ |
| describes |
imitative suicidal behavior
ⓘ
increase in suicides following media reports of suicide ⓘ |
| field |
media studies
ⓘ
public health ⓘ social psychology ⓘ suicidology ⓘ |
| firstDescribedInContextOf | reactions to Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
copycat suicide
ⓘ
suicide contagion ⓘ |
| hasCause |
detailed description of suicide methods in media
ⓘ
romanticized portrayal of suicide ⓘ sensationalized reporting of suicide ⓘ |
| hasEffect |
increase in suicide rates
ⓘ
method-specific imitation of suicide ⓘ temporal clustering of suicides ⓘ |
| hasGeographicPattern | increase in suicides in regions exposed to coverage ⓘ |
| hasTemporalPattern | short-term increase in suicides after media reports ⓘ |
| influences |
World Health Organization suicide reporting recommendations
ⓘ
journalistic codes of ethics on suicide coverage ⓘ media reporting guidelines on suicide ⓘ |
| isConsidered |
public health concern
ⓘ
risk factor for suicide at population level ⓘ |
| mitigatedBy |
avoiding explicit description of suicide methods
ⓘ
avoiding glorification of suicide ⓘ including help-seeking information in suicide reports ⓘ responsible media reporting ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
The Sorrows of Young Werther
ⓘ
Werther (fictional character) ⓘ
linked to:
Werther
|
| opposedBy | Papageno effect ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
contagion in social networks
ⓘ
modeling of behavior ⓘ social learning theory ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
case-control studies of suicide contagion
ⓘ
epidemiological studies of suicide ⓘ time-series analyses of suicide rates ⓘ |
| triggeredBy |
celebrity suicides
ⓘ
fictional character suicides ⓘ highly publicized suicides ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Werther effect Description of subject: The Werther effect is a social phenomenon in which widely publicized suicides, especially of famous or fictional individuals, lead to an increase in imitative suicides among vulnerable people.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.