Trigger Warning?

Categories
Lifestyle

It may be the pendulum has swung too far. The words "Trigger Warning" now do the opposite of what they were intended for.

 

There is evidence that trigger warnings may harm the very population they intend to help. A Harvard study involving 451 trauma survivors, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science in 2020, found that trigger warnings made people feel more anxious about the material in question by encouraging them to see their trauma “as more central to their life narrative.”

 

Demands for trigger warnings also affect professors who have devoted their lives to teaching. “I’m not sure why, but there is this way in which faculty and students have been pitted against each other, as if the faculty is out to traumatize students,” says Amna Khalid, an associate professor of history at Carleton College in Minnesota.

 

Being sensitive to an audience is necessary but over sensitivity doesn't help.

Comments

Paul Napolitano

The pendulum has definitely swung too far, and I don’t think the upward swing is going to stop.
Daniel Schwartz

We all need to just take it easy and relax. There are too many triggers for sure.
Rona Gura

Agree, I believe that, as a whole, we have become much more anxious.
Corey Bearak

From my earliest years, mom's dad -- Grandpa Sol - would say, "be calm and cool at all times."

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.