Triggered
Triggered
Trigger warning: I’m not a fan of trigger warnings
“I’m concerned about trigger warnings’ rapid spread, despite a complete lack of evidence they help... We should be talking about things that matter more [like] how to encourage people to access evidence-based care for PTSD.”
Trigger warnings are statements alerting people that a lecture, a reading, or other content contains material that could be upsetting, especially to trauma victims. Once confined to the academy, trigger warnings have long since escaped into the wider world, and are now familiar to almost everyone and almost everyone’s dog. Most people know what they are, and most people know what they’re for. Not only that, but anyone who’s paid even the slightest attention to the issue knows that, although some people are extremely enthusiastic about trigger warnings, others have serious misgivings. I belong to the latter camp.
Much has been written about the topic over the last decade, by defenders and detractors alike. My aim in this post is to pull together the best arguments I’ve seen across multiple works, and settle the debate once and for all. With the publication of this article, nothing will need to be written on the topic again.
I’m joking, of course - but I do hope that the piece will persuade at least some people that trigger warnings are well-intentioned but ultimately harmful. Let’s get to it, then: 10 thoughts about trigger warnings!
1. Some argue that trigger warnings help trauma victims and others to emotionally prepare for upsetting material. Knowing that it’s coming, people can brace themselves for it. Others, however, argue that trigger warnings instead increase distress in response to the material, on the assumption that if you tell people “you might find this material upsetting,” they’ll find it more upsetting than they otherwise would.
Who’s right? According to the gold-standard meta-analysis on the topic, neither side is! Trigger warnings have no reliable effect in either direction.
2. Some argue that trigger warnings are useful because they give people - trauma victims in particular - the option to avoid upsetting material. Others, however, argue that although trigger warnings do indeed do that, this is a bad thing rather than a good thing because avoidance helps maintain trauma. Trigger warnings may therefore be countertherapeutic.
Who’s right? Again, the answer may be neither side. The preponderance of evidence suggests that trigger warnings don’t reliably lead people to avoid potentially upsetting material, rendering the whole debate moot.
3. By now you might be wondering whether trigger warnings have any effect at all. The answer is yes. One thing they reliably do is increase anticipatory anxiety - that is, they make people more anxious about the prospect of encountering the material. When they actually do encounter it, they’re no more upset than they would have been - and no less. They were just more stressed out in the lead up.
4. A common refrain at this point is that although trigger warnings don’t seem to help, they’re also not especially harmful. Why, then, not just use them? There are many reasons not to. For starters, as one of the big names in the area, Payton Jones, noted in a thread on Twitter/X: