Psychiatry Investig.  2016 Jan;13(1):74-81. 10.4306/pi.2016.13.1.74.

Copycat Suicide Induced by Entertainment Celebrity Suicides in South Korea

• Jang SA
• Sung JM
• Park JY
• Jeon WT

• KMID: 2316599
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2016.13.1.74

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Throughout the past several years, there have been a number of entertainment celebrity suicides in South Korea. The aim of this study was to investigate the clustering of suicides following celebrities' suicides in South Korea from 2005 to 2008, particularly according to certain characteristics.
METHODS
Seven celebrity suicides were examined and defined using the Korean Integrated Newspaper Database System (KINDS) and from these, we considered four affected periods occurring 28 days after each celebrity's suicide. A Poisson time-series autoregression model was used to estimate the relative risk of the total suicide number for each affected period from 2005 to 2008. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate whether there were specific increases in the numbers of suicides in subgroups matching each celebrity.
RESULTS
There were significant increases in the risk of suicide during the affected periods. Remarkable increases were found in the subgroups matching each celebrity, especially in the group in which all factors (sex, age, and method) were similar.
CONCLUSION
This study provides confirmation that a significant copycat effect was induced by these celebrities' suicides, especially among people who identified more with the celebrities. This implies that countermeasures for upright media coverage of celebrity suicides should be discussed and practiced properly in South Korea.

Keyword

Suicide; Risk factors; Imitative behavior; Mass media; Republic of Korea

MeSH Terms

Imitative Behavior
Korea*
Logistic Models
Mass Media
Periodicals
Republic of Korea
Risk Factors
Suicide*