I sometimes like them, but literally only as a content label and not some glorified mental health save. Sometimes it’s nice to choose not to ruin a good mood by reading a downer of a story.
You literally just described how it’s a mental health save though. If a content/trigger warning gives you the opportunity it’s to skip the content and not be put into a bad mood, that’s a mental health save. For you, it’s maybe small. For someone with cptsd, it could be pretty fuckin big.
The entire point is most of the time it doesn’t come with such an opportunity. Is someone supposed to go through all the effort of skipping classes and assignments just because a label showed up on a topic? No.
It’s not a mental save. It’s merely forewarning. The entire point is it isn’tproviding a mental save. In my case, I only gain the benefit because I can skip the content with no other repercussions.
I didn’t have that experience in school (albeit that was 10 years ago) and the only places I’ve seen TWs is the internet.
So maybe it’s a situation of time and place when it is and isn’t effective. But in a case where there’s no opportunity to abstain, then I agree with you that it’s merely a forewarning and largely useless aside from keeping the topic from causing a bit of whiplash.
Take your train of thought one step further. Because there is no actual tangible benefit to be gained, it means there is no practical difference between a trigger warning and a basic content label. Treating them as anything more is simply glorifying a label.
To be clear, I conditionally agree with you based on the context and setting where it’s used. But, that’s what they are. Content labels. And a content label (ostensibly) should allow you to decide in advance if you want to consume the content. If you don’t have a choice in the matter, what’s the point?
We’ve been rating movies for forever for this exact reason. To give people information to decide if they want to consume the content considering the violence, sexual content, language, drug use, etc.
In the case of trigger warnings, they’re intended to say ‘this content is potentially triggering for some people due to this particular topic’ (SA, eating disorders, drug use, etc., all have vulnerable people who can be genuinely triggered by reading content about it, especially if it’s in detail). And having the opportunity to not consume that content rather than be slapped in the face with it is a mental health save. It has value in that context, which you even described in your own comment. You sometimes like them, and that’s when I’m saying they have value as trigger warnings specifically.
I didn’t think I was being unclear and I’m sorry if I was, but we seem to agree here. You just appear to be saying ‘all trigger warnings are dumb and don’t help with mental health’ while going on to describe how they (sometimes) help with mental health.
In reality that’s a practice that should already be done though. Use of tags for content should be able to tell you what you’re getting into. Normally people have a pretty good idea about what they’re getting into already when consuming content.
Saying ‘Rape trigger warning’ literally only just makes somebody who has a trigger regarding rape immediately anticipate a trigger even if they decided against consuming the content. I’ve pulled the most succinct evidence below.
Response affect
Most of the empirical inquiry into the efficacy of trigger warnings has focused on emotional responses toward material accompanied by warnings (e.g., ratings of anxiety while reading passages; Bellet et al., 2018). These studies have reached mixed conclusions. Most studies (Bellet et al., 2020; Boysen et al., 2021; Bridgland et al., 2019; Gavac, 2020; Sanson et al., 2019) have concluded that trigger warnings have a trivial impact on emotional responses. Two studies found that warnings increase negative emotional reactions toward material (Bellet et al., 2018; Jones et al., 2020). Only one study concluded that warnings may reduce emotional reactions toward material (Gainsburg & Earl, 2018).
Avoidance
Several previous studies have examined behavioral avoidance of material accompanied by a warning (e.g., choosing a video title presented with or without a trigger warning; Gainsburg & Earl, 2018). Several studies have found that warnings have a negligible effect on avoidance toward material (Jones et al., 2020; Sanson et al., 2019). Other studies have concluded that warnings may lead to small increases in avoidance behaviors (Gainsburg & Earl, 2018) or small increases in engagement with material (Bruce & Roberts, 2020).
Anticipatory affect
A small handful of previous studies have experimentally tested emotional reactions (e.g., state anxiety; Bridgland et al., 2019) in the anticipatory period after giving a warning but prior to exposure to the warned-about content. This literature consistently demonstrates that viewing a trigger warning appears to increase anticipatory anxiety prior to viewing content (Boysen et al., 2021; Bridgland et al., 2019; Bridgland & Takarangi, 2021; Bruce et al., 2023; Gainsburg & Earl, 2018).
Comprehension
Finally, other studies have investigated the way that warnings might enhance or reduce the comprehension of stimuli (e.g., scores on a multiple-choice test for factual content; e.g., Boysen et al., 2021). These studies have found that trigger warnings do not seem to impair or enhance the comprehension of educational material (Boysen et al., 2021; Gavac, 2020; Sanson et al., 2019).
Yea, any emphasis beyond a basic label is just inviting scrutiny. Glorifying “trigger warnings” above just negative labels definitely puts way too much emphasis on them.
I sometimes like them, but literally only as a content label and not some glorified mental health save. Sometimes it’s nice to choose not to ruin a good mood by reading a downer of a story.
You literally just described how it’s a mental health save though. If a content/trigger warning gives you the opportunity it’s to skip the content and not be put into a bad mood, that’s a mental health save. For you, it’s maybe small. For someone with cptsd, it could be pretty fuckin big.
The entire point is most of the time it doesn’t come with such an opportunity. Is someone supposed to go through all the effort of skipping classes and assignments just because a label showed up on a topic? No.
It’s not a mental save. It’s merely forewarning. The entire point is it isn’t providing a mental save. In my case, I only gain the benefit because I can skip the content with no other repercussions.
Gotcha.
I didn’t have that experience in school (albeit that was 10 years ago) and the only places I’ve seen TWs is the internet.
So maybe it’s a situation of time and place when it is and isn’t effective. But in a case where there’s no opportunity to abstain, then I agree with you that it’s merely a forewarning and largely useless aside from keeping the topic from causing a bit of whiplash.
Take your train of thought one step further. Because there is no actual tangible benefit to be gained, it means there is no practical difference between a trigger warning and a basic content label. Treating them as anything more is simply glorifying a label.
To be clear, I conditionally agree with you based on the context and setting where it’s used. But, that’s what they are. Content labels. And a content label (ostensibly) should allow you to decide in advance if you want to consume the content. If you don’t have a choice in the matter, what’s the point?
We’ve been rating movies for forever for this exact reason. To give people information to decide if they want to consume the content considering the violence, sexual content, language, drug use, etc.
In the case of trigger warnings, they’re intended to say ‘this content is potentially triggering for some people due to this particular topic’ (SA, eating disorders, drug use, etc., all have vulnerable people who can be genuinely triggered by reading content about it, especially if it’s in detail). And having the opportunity to not consume that content rather than be slapped in the face with it is a mental health save. It has value in that context, which you even described in your own comment. You sometimes like them, and that’s when I’m saying they have value as trigger warnings specifically.
I didn’t think I was being unclear and I’m sorry if I was, but we seem to agree here. You just appear to be saying ‘all trigger warnings are dumb and don’t help with mental health’ while going on to describe how they (sometimes) help with mental health.
In reality that’s a practice that should already be done though. Use of tags for content should be able to tell you what you’re getting into. Normally people have a pretty good idea about what they’re getting into already when consuming content.
Saying ‘Rape trigger warning’ literally only just makes somebody who has a trigger regarding rape immediately anticipate a trigger even if they decided against consuming the content. I’ve pulled the most succinct evidence below.
Yea, any emphasis beyond a basic label is just inviting scrutiny. Glorifying “trigger warnings” above just negative labels definitely puts way too much emphasis on them.