Emily J. M. KNOX (dir.) (2017), Trigger Warnings. History, Theory, Context

Objective: Trigger warnings alert trauma survivors about potentially disturbing forthcoming content. However, most empirical studies on trigger warnings indicate that they are either functionally inert or cause small adverse side effects. These evaluations have been limited to either trauma-naïve participants or mixed samples. Accordingly, we tested whether trigger warnings would be psychologically beneficial in the most relevant population: survivors of serious trauma. Method: Our experiment was a preregistered replication and extension of a previous one (Bellet, Jones, & McNally, 2018); 451 trauma survivors were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive trigger warnings prior to reading potentially distressing passages from world literature. They provided their emotional reactions to each passage; self-reported anxiety was the primary dependent variable. Results: We found no evidence that trigger warnings were helpful for trauma survivors, for those who self-reported a PTSD diagnosis, or for those who qualified for probable PTSD, even when survivors' trauma matched the passages’ content. We found substantial evidence that trigger warnings countertherapeutically reinforce survivors' view of their trauma as central to their identity. Regarding replication hypotheses, the evidence was either ambiguous or substantially favored the hypothesis that trigger warnings have no effect. Conclusions: Trigger warnings are not helpful for trauma survivors. It is less clear whether trigger warnings are explicitly harmful. However, such knowledge is unnecessary to adjudicate whether to use trigger warnings – because trigger warnings are consistently unhelpful, there is no evidence-based reason to use them.

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Trigger Warnings: Sex, Lies and Social Justice Utopia on Tumblr

Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network ◽

10.31165/nk.2013.61.296 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lenore Bell

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Social Justice ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Online Community ◽

Sexual Trauma ◽

Self Care ◽

The Internet ◽

Global Community ◽

And Gender ◽

Trigger Warnings

Inthe spring of 2012, a major scandal rocked the queer social justice communityon Tumblr. One of its most popular bloggers and activists, a 22 -year-oldtransman named Ira Gray suddenly faced by a deluge of sexual assaultallegations from multiple people via Tumblr. Despite the queer social justicecommunity's pride in being open and accepting, many of its practices are rigid,pedantic and counterproductive. The rise and fall of Ira Gray's celebritystatus has highlighted how truly divided this online community can be.Sexuality and gender identity were not the only lines of contention; mentalillness, race, class and trauma played dominant roles in the discussion. Thevery fact that the accusers had stayed silent for so long is telling. Throughanalysing the tumblr posts of the accused, accusers and othercommentators/spectators, one can see how mental illness, privilege andsexuality are negotiated in this small yet global community. For many queersocial justice tumblr bloggers, graphically detailed posts about theirexperience of sexual trauma lie side-by-side with explicit nude phone cameraportraits of the blogger tagged as "self-care." I argue that theethos created by this corner of the internet does not provide a queer oasis forthe user away from an overbearing, hetero-normative world. Instead, itintroduces a complicated set of rules and mores that presents newcomplications. The combination of naked exposure and online depersonalisationcan prove toxic.

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“They Were There for People Who Needed Them”: Student Attitudes Toward the Use of Trigger Warnings in Victimology Classrooms

Journal of Criminal Justice Education ◽

10.1080/10511253.2018.1433221 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 22-45

Author(s):

Alison C. Cares ◽

Cortney A. Franklin ◽

Bonnie S. Fisher ◽

Lisa Growette Bostaph

Keyword(s):

Student Attitudes ◽

Trigger Warnings

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Beyond Trigger Warnings

Social Text ◽

10.1215/01642472-8680438 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 49-76

Author(s):

Christina B. Hanhardt ◽

Jasbir K. Puar ◽

Neel Ahuja ◽

Paul Amar ◽

Aniruddha Dutta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Queer Studies ◽

International Study ◽

Campus Safety ◽

College Campuses ◽

Safe Space ◽

Sex And Gender ◽

Study Programs ◽

And Gender ◽

Object Of Study ◽

Trigger Warnings

This roundtable asks what queer studies might offer to an analysis of debates on campus safety. New approaches in queer studies take as their object of study not only sex and gender but also the cultural politics of liberalism; in turn, scholarship on the geopolitics of injury demonstrates the situatedness of both identity and economic forms. Brought together, these scholarly approaches provide an important lens on many of the contradictions of contemporary college campuses. Rendering classrooms and other places on campus as intrinsically embedded in global relations of militarization, securitization, dispossession, and risk management, “safe space” is elaborated in this roundtable in material, administrative, and pragmatic terms: from the conceptualization of alert systems to the racialized fears driving insurance calculations for international study programs to the struggles over academic freedom and student organizing.

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