Slate’s Shannon Palus has a great review and write-up of academic literature on the controversial topic of trigger warnings.
In a well-meaning effort, more and more universities are attaching warnings to material that could stir up memories of past trauma for readers or viewers.
For example, if there’s a novel with rape, the university will affix a trigger warning for rape survivors lest they stir up awful memories.
Religious conservatives often really hate this kind of stuff (“snowflake generation,” they accuse), which is perplexing. Universities etc don’t do this to harm students. Their purpose is kindness and consideration (Which is far more noble than the hateful rhetoric from the evangelical-beloved-president that is designed to stir up division and hatred).
But the fact of the matter is that studies show trigger warnings either don’t work or actually might be harmful.
There are some theories trying to explain the growing empirical evidence.
First, “cognitive avoidance” doesn’t work. In other words, people have to process and address traumatic memories. Stuffing it away, refusing to engage doesn’t make it somehow better. The storm just grows.
Second, a trigger warning can actually be… a trigger. If a warning says, “trauma ahead,” that puts readers in an emotionally fragile state of mind.
Third, trigger warnings might reinforce the idea that a reader’s trauma is more central to their identity than anything else.
All in all, trigger warnings don’t seem to help people process whatever they read, they may amplify the effect of the traumatic material, and they may contribute to harmful self-identity.
Either that or — they do nothing at all.
That’s what the studies show.
So how do we help? Shannon Palus suggests:
That’s not to say that people who have experienced trauma should be left on their own to have that panicked response and just get over it.
“Rather than issuing trigger warnings, universities can best serve students by facilitating access to effective and proven treatments for P.T.S.D. and other mental health problems,” Richard McNally, a Harvard psychologist and co-author on the paper with Jones, wrote in the New York Times in 2016.
