Citation

Arendt F, Haim M, Scherr S. Soc. Sci. Med. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

School for Mass Communication Research, University of Leuven (KU), Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112692

PMID

32057542

Abstract

RATIONALE: Google can act as a "gatekeeper" for individuals who seek suicide-related information online (e.g., "how to kill oneself"). The search engine displays a "suicide-prevention result" (SPR) at the very top of some suicide-related search results. This SPR comes as an info box and contains supposedly helpful crisis help information such as references to a telephone counseling service.

OBJECTIVE: It remains unknown, however, how Google has implemented the SPR in the especially dangerous context of celebrity suicide for which imitational copycat suicides in vulnerable individuals are most likely.

METHOD: Relying on agent-based testing, a computational social science method, we emulated a total of 137,937 Google searches in April 2019, using both general suicide-related and specific celebrity suicide-related search terms. Given the recently discovered language-based differences in SPR display rates, we held the language constant and focused on German-speaking populations in four European countries.

RESULTS: The SPR was never shown in searches for celebrities who died by suicide in all four countries. Furthermore, analyses indicated a digital divide in access to suicide-prevention information with moderately high SPR display rates in Germany and Switzerland, yet with no display in Austria and Belgium.

CONCLUSION: Higher SPR display rates could support global suicide-prevention efforts at virtually no cost by providing preventive information to vulnerable users precisely at the moment when it is apparently needed.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Digital divide; Google; Search engine; Suicide; Suicide-prevention result