Mass Killings May Have Created Contagion, Feeding on Itself

[yallerdawg]

It's not always Islam! That's Trump and the 'other team'!

Source: New York Times, by Benedict Carey

The horrifying rash of massacres during this violent summer suggests that public, widely covered rampage killings have led to a kind of contagion, prompting a small number of people with strong personal grievances and scant political ideology to mine previous attacks for both methods and potential targets to express their lethal anger and despair.

Some of the attacks are ideological, some are not and some fall into a gray area. But the highly publicized attacks in a nightclub and restaurants in Paris, at airports in Brussels and Istanbul, and in public spaces in Mumbai may be providing troubled people already contemplating violence a spur to act, experts said, in the same way that many school shootings and other violent rampages follow close on the heels of similar incidents in the news.

The vast majority of people who take their lives kill only themselves, leaving no evidence that they wanted to kill others. But experts suspect that murder-suicides are subject to contagion effects from high-profile cases, though the numbers are too small to establish that statistically. Only about 1 to 2 percent of murder-suicides target random people outside immediate family or friends, said Matthew Nock, a psychologist at Harvard.

“These events seem more homicide related, with suicide as part of the process, including suicide by police,” Dr. Nock said. “But you can see, with a confluence of factors, including readily available high-capacity firearms, continuous media reporting of mass killings and terror attacks, that there’s certainly fuel for contagion.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/science/mass-killings-contagion-copycat.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

[daleo]

1. I wouldn't diminish the terrorist aspect, it's real

But, it does seem like a certain amount of essentially motiveless (or personally motivated) copycat killing has also gone along with the terror attacks. Plus, there is a media effect - random sporadic violence in Europe that wouldn't have been news in North America is probably getting more attention than it otherwise would have.

But, again, it would be a mistake to minimize the political aspect. Islamic State and others are no doubt good a t recognizing mentally unstable people, whom they can influence for their own ends.

[ansible]

2. IS makes a lot of propaganda on the internet that can easily influence people

It's disturbing how high quality it is, they're using HD cameras and english speakers too.

[yallerdawg]

3. "Islamic State" posts crap on the internet.

They throw out a net, tell the crazies to 'pledge allegiance' - and then take credit for the crazy.

The "terrorism" is the Internet Service Provider who carries this shit.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. Like "Ghostbusters 2" basically

Sorry to bring up that movie....