March 20, 2024 • 29 mins
Here's a deep dive into the controversial topic of trigger warnings. I explore the ongoing debate surrounding the effectiveness and potential dangers of trigger warnings, particularly for those who have experienced complex trauma. I highlight the latest research on trigger warnings, their impact on emotional responses, learning outcomes, and more.
Don't miss this episode where I challenge the common usage of trigger warnings and explore trigger warnings' influence on those they're supposed to protect most.
Watch this episode on YouTube.
If you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out:
"Trigger Warning Efficacy: The Impact of Warnings on Affect, Attitudes, and Learning" by Guy Boysen et al.
"A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Trigger Warnings, Content Warnings, and Content Notes" by Victoria Bridgland et al.
"I Was Wrong About Trigger Warnings" by Jill Filipovic
"Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals With Trauma Histories" by Payton Jones et al.
"What Does It Mean to Be Triggered?" By Zawn Villines
Theme music: "Everything Feels New" by Evgeny Bardyuzha.
All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet.
Send in your questions or thoughts via audio or video recording for a chance to be featured on the show! Email your audio or video clips to otherautism@gmail.com through WeTransfer.
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The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Hovet (00:00):
Today I'm doing something a bit different.
I'm going to be discussingtrigger warnings.
While this topic isn't directlyrelated to autism or autism
research, it does come up a lotin content related to autism and
neurodiversity.
It's actually almost a giventhese days that any content that
(00:25):
includes discussion ofsensitive topics will have
trigger warnings.
But just because something ispervasive doesn't make it best
practice, nor does it make itsafe, specifically
psychologically safe in thiscase.
It's recently come to myattention that some listeners
(00:46):
think I should include triggerwarnings at the beginning of The
Other Autism episodes, shownotes, and on the accompanying
website.
I realize that I cover a lot ofsensitive topics.
This has come up now a handfulof times, so I decided to devote
an entire episode to this.
My thinking is that if this hascome up so many times, many of
(01:10):
you must be sitting therewondering why I don't include
trigger warnings.
I think I did actually includetrigger warnings in an episode
or two, but for the most part Iavoid them and I avoid any kind
of content warnings or anythinglike that.
You may think this episodeisn't relevant to you and you
might be considering whether ornot you want to stick around to
(01:31):
listen, but anyone interested inpsychology or mental health
will likely enjoy learning aboutwhat I found when I looked at
the research into triggerwarnings, and a lot of the
research is quite recent.
I will say that I have beenworking in communications for
more than a decade now, mostlyin science and health
(01:51):
communications, and this topicof trigger warning has existed
for a very long time.
Also, as many of you know, butjust for the sake of newer
listeners, I was doing amaster's degree program in
counseling psychology before Iswitched to a master of health
studies program, which Icompleted just this past
December.
I have a special interest inpsychology and a lot of the work
(02:14):
I do in researchcommunications, certainly not
all, but a lot, ends up beingrelated to psychology in some
way.
All that to say, I have reallytaken time to explore the topic
of trigger warnings and theireffectiveness.
It's been one of my, I guessyou could say, favorite topics
over the years that keeps comingup.
(02:36):
As far back as 2016, I'd saybefore the research on trigger
warnings really took off,I interviewed Dr.
Suzanne Pineles about herthoughts on trigger warnings.
Dr.
Pineles is a psychologist atthe National Center for PTSD in
the United States and it was herview at the time that trigger
(02:57):
warnings can come with a lot ofunforeseen harms and
psychological consequences,which is perhaps surprising in a
time when we have come toexpect them or take them for
granted.
And Dr.
Pineles's feedback came at atime preceding a lot of the
research on trigger warnings.
Her views came mostly from avery deep understanding of
(03:20):
post-traumatic stress disorder,other trauma-related conditions,
as well as clinical experiencesof working with those with
complex trauma.
Turns out, the research hassince supported much of what she
told me.
I think it would seem to mostof us that trigger warnings are
helpful or beneficial, and thatwas definitely what I used to
(03:41):
think, especially when I firstheard about them.
But in many ways, they'reactually contrary to
trauma-informed care andtrauma-informed approaches.
Before I get into the researchon all of this, I wanted to take
a moment to thank Caitlin,Dave, and Nicole for their super
generous one-time shows ofsupport to The Other Autism
(04:02):
podcast.
Thank you so, so, so, so much.
I also wanted you to know thatI save the notes you include
with your donations.
They go into a special folderand I will cherish them forever.
I also wanted to thank the 10people who have now joined The
Other Autism's Patreon, which isstill brand new and finding its
(04:22):
way.
Check out links in the shownotes to either send in a
one-time show of support throughthe Buy Me a Coffee website or,
if you're interested in monthlysupport, you can join the
Patreon and what that gives youis exclusive content and access
to The Other Autism community.
I just opened the group chat onPatreon, which works through
(04:45):
the Patreon smartphone app.
This provides a way toprivately chat with me and other
Patreon members who arespecifically part of The Other
Autism's Patreon page.
Any questions about Patreon oranything covering what I've just
talked about, you can alwaysemail me at kristen dot hovet at
(05:05):
gmail dot com.
The email address is also, asalways, in the show notes.
What kind of exclusive contentwill Patreon members get?
Well, they're currently gettingbehind the scenes photos and
videos, as well as extra contentfrom some recent podcast
episodes.
I'm also planning on developingThe Other Autism reading
(05:28):
episodes, which are audio-onlyand feature me reading to
listeners.
I plan to read about a chapteror so in each of these episodes,
depending on the book, and willcontinue until we finish the
book.
The books I read will come fromthe public domain, so we don't
run into any copyright issues.
I'm thinking about startingwith 20,000 Leagues Under the
(05:50):
Sea, which I've never actuallyread.
This idea came about fromseveral listeners emailing me
and also commenting on YouTubeabout how they find my voice
soothing, and some have evenrequested episodes of me just
talking about anything.
But instead of just anything, Ithink reading books would
actually be best for this.
Also, I love books, so I thinkthis kind of works well as
(06:12):
Patreon content.
If there's interest, I will alsostart accepting Patreon
members' questions that I willanswer on Patreon exclusively,
meaning you have to be a paidPatreon member to view those.
These questions would be advicecolumn- type questions, but in
addition to my responses, wecould also crowdsource responses
(06:32):
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The cool thing about Patreon isyou can sign up using your real
name or you can create ausername so no one knows your
identity.
The link to the Patreon is inthe show notes, but if you'd
like to head there now, checkout Patreon.
That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com,forward slash TheOtherAutism,
(06:55):
all one word.
If you're interested innon-monetary ways to support the
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If you're listening on ApplePodcasts or Spotify or wherever
else you get your podcasts,please consider leaving a rating
and or a review.
(07:16):
It really, really helps interms of getting new listeners
and telling the algorithm to doits thing.
So trigger warnings.
It's important to start bysaying I don't judge or think
any less of anyone who usestrigger warnings or expects them
(07:37):
.
The intentions behind triggerwarnings are kind, sweet, noble.
The intentions are not what I'mquestioning.
With the use of triggerwarnings, people want to show
solidarity and support for thosewho have experienced trauma or,
in some cases, for those whohave specific phobias.
(08:00):
They want to protect thesefolks and, by giving trigger
warnings, they hope to help themin their journey towards
healing.
Proponents of trigger warningsstate that these warnings
increase inclusivity and helpthose with post-traumatic stress
disorder avoid re-experiencingsymptoms such as flashbacks.
(08:20):
They also believe that triggerwarnings help give people the
opportunity or choice to engageor not engage with sensitive
content or at least help themprepare to engage with the
content.
Critics of trigger warnings, onthe other hand, think that
trigger warnings threaten freespeech, academic freedom, and
(08:43):
that they hamper learning.
They also believe that triggerwarnings prevent people from
engaging with certain materialthat could actually be
beneficial to them, even ifchallenging.
These critics think thattrigger warnings impair the
building of psychologicalresilience and lead to
unreasonable or unrealisticexpectations about the world.
(09:05):
All told, critics of triggerwarnings think we could actually
be doing harm to survivors oftrauma in the long run.
Trigger warnings, they say,might actually reinforce the
importance of their past trauma,making trauma central to their
identities or personalities.
Indeed, people who view theirtrauma this way, as core to who
(09:27):
they are, tend to have worse andlonger-lasting trauma-related
symptoms.
Before we go any further, Ithink it's important to really
define trigger warnings.
A trigger warning is anystatement given at the beginning
of some piece of media, like anarticle, podcast, book, TV show
(09:47):
, film, etc.
to help audience membersprepare for or avoid content
that may trigger memories,emotions, or mental states
related to their past traumaticexperiences.
The purpose of trigger warningsis to help a person,
specifically someone with acutestress disorder, post-traumatic
(10:09):
stress disorder, or some othertrauma-related disorder, avoid
distress, discomfort, or anxiety.
Trigger warnings differ fromolder content labeling, which is
labeling that's provided asguidance for parents or
caregivers, for example, toalert them to content that they
may wish to keep from their kids.
(10:30):
Or sometimes it's helpful to bealerted to content we might not
want to view or play in theworkplace around colleagues and
supervisors.
Content labeling is more of away to help contextualize
content so that the audiencemember can judge the
appropriateness of viewing orshowing someone else the content
(10:50):
at a specific time and specificplace.
Content labeling is foreveryone, regardless of mental
health or emotional status.
While there is often overlap onthe types of content where
you'll see or hear both contentlabeling and trigger warnings,
such as content covering sexualor physical abuse, trigger
(11:12):
warnings originated on onlinefeminist message boards around
the year 2008 to specificallyprotect trauma survivors from
confronting sensitive material.
And then the use of triggerwarnings very rapidly expanded
to classrooms, social mediaplatforms, and to virtually
(11:33):
every type of media that exists.
Interestingly, trigger warningsare a kind of community-based
intervention, but they took offin terms of usage without the
rigorous scientific evidencewe've come to expect from this
type of community-basedintervention or action.
You'll now see or hear themused on content covering a
(11:56):
variety of topics, includingtalk about police, racism,
animal cruelty, crime, death,alcohol use, bodily fluids,
eating disorders, scars,nightmares, seizures, being
paralyzed, masturbation,suffocation, body shaming, and
the list goes on and on and onand on.
(12:20):
Discussions and public debateabout trigger warnings have
often been very politicallycharged and complex.
Most importantly, they havebeen data-poor or terribly
lacking in evidence.
For a bit of personal background, my initial suspicions about
trigger warnings came about assomeone with complex trauma, and
(12:42):
these suspicions came aboutafter I initially was very
excited about trigger warnings.
So I've explored my owntriggers in great detail, often
alongside a therapist, and Iknow they aren't as basic as the
mention or description ofsomeone else's trauma, even if
that trauma is quite related toor aligned with my own.
(13:05):
Some people might get triggeredfrom these types of mere
mentions or descriptions, but mytriggers are very specific and
have to do with specific, andthe key here is combined stimuli
.
As in, to be triggered, I needall these various stimuli to be
happening at pretty much thesame time.
(13:26):
My triggers are related tospecific smells, while also
being in a specific scenario,feeling very specific ways in my
body, and surrounded byspecific people or types of
people.
Even certain kinds of light arekey elements in my personal
triggers, or at least some ofthem.
(13:49):
Also, trigger warnings coverobviously bad experiences or
scenarios that many finddisgusting or gross, but a lot
of us are triggered by what mostpeople would think of as
totally neutral or even happysituations or scenarios.
For example, I'm triggered bytalk of menopause or mention of
(14:09):
pregnancies, deliveries, thehaving of babies in general.
I'm also triggered by thesights, sounds, and smells of
state fairs and carnivals, ifthey have certain elements in
place.
And this dates back topartially memory- blocked,
shadowy, incredibly traumaticexperiences from childhood.
(14:30):
I know others who are triggeredby representations of happy
families or families sittingaround to give gifts or eat
dinner or celebrate holidays.
Others I've read about areseverely triggered by the sights
and sounds of springtime,people playing baseball or other
team sports, or the sight ofgolf carts in the rain.
(14:53):
So how do you put triggerwarnings on this type of content
?
I mean, this type of content,this sort of neutral or happy
content, is no less triggeringthan the content that's
obviously disturbing, like rapeor murder.
It's just different.
You'd have to add triggerwarnings to literally everything
(15:15):
, every single type of content,to cover the full range of
potential triggers that someonewith trauma, especially complex
trauma, might experience.
But what does the research say?
Before getting into some of thetrigger warning- specific
research, I'd like to talk aboutsome research or knowledge
regarding post-traumatic stressdisorder or PTSD.
(15:37):
An article by Payton Jones andtheir team cited past PTSD
research conducted by variousteams from 1986, 1999, 2003, and
2018.
This collection of evidencefound that, although avoidance
of triggers or reminders oftrauma, quote, reduces anxiety
(15:59):
in the short run, it maintainsor worsens PTSD in the long run,
end quote.
Avoidance is simply not a goodcoping strategy for those with
PTSD and definitely not a goodlong-term strategy if you're
hoping to improve, reducesymptoms, or even lose your PTSD
diagnosis altogether.
(16:21):
Still citing this body ofPTSD-related evidence, the
researchers state that one mainelement of standard treatment
for trauma-related conditionsincludes, quote, graduated
prolonged exposure to traumacues, end quote.
Which is especially useful forlong-term well-being, especially
(16:41):
when this exposure takes placein controlled settings.
All told, they state, avoidingtrauma cues is likely to be,
quote, much more harmful fortrauma survivors in the long
term, end quote.
Jones and their team also notedthat only around 4% of
traumatic events result in PTSD.
(17:01):
While many people assume thatPTSD is widespread, the majority
of trauma survivors actuallydon't go on to develop PTSD.
Many also tend to assume thattrauma leads to permanent
psychological change, but thisis far from the truth.
Psychological resilience goes along way in reversing the
(17:25):
damaging effects of trauma.
In their own original research,Jones and their team endeavored
to find out whether triggerwarnings improve psychological
and emotional coping in traumasurvivors when they're exposed
to sensitive or triggeringmaterial.
They found, quote, substantialevidence that trigger warnings
(17:47):
increase the degree to whichparticipants viewed their worst
event as central to their lifenarrative, end quote.
And those with the worst PTSDsymptoms had increased anxiety
when they were given triggerwarnings as opposed to when they
were not given trigger warnings.
They conclude that, quote, thiseffect is ironic in the sense
(18:12):
that trigger warnings may bemost harmful to the individuals
they were designed to protect,end quote.
Jones and their team, quote,find no evidence-based reason
for educators, administrators,or clinicians to use trigger
warnings, end quote.
And that using unvettedinterventions such as trigger
(18:35):
warnings is irresponsible tovictims of trauma.
In a series of three studies,Guy Boysen and their team looked
at trigger warnings in thecontext of education and
teaching.
If effective, the researcherswrote, quote, trigger warnings
should decrease distress andincrease learning, end quote.
(18:56):
The general idea is that ifindividuals are not distressed
and not overly anxious, thenlearning will be better or will
improve.
And if trigger warnings helpavoid distress or anxiety, then
trigger warnings thereforesupport or improve learning and,
by extension, support orimprove education in general, or
(19:20):
so the thinking goes.
I'm going to briefly summarizethe results of this team's
findings because I really wantto save room for the
meta-analytic research I found,which is scientific analysis of
several studies all about thesame topic.
If you'd like to read thisresearch for yourself, the link
is in the show notes along withthe other studies I cover here.
(19:42):
So in the first study, Boysenand their team set out to
discover if trigger warningsgiven on content related to
sexual assault influenceemotional responses to sensitive
material, whether triggerwarnings affect test performance
related to sensitive material,and whether trigger warnings
(20:03):
have the same effect on peoplewith and without traumatic
experiences related to thesensitive content.
The research team found thatpositive emotions decreased and
negative emotions increasedafter exposure to sensitive
content, regardless of whetheror not a trigger warning was
(20:23):
given to the study participants.
In other words, sensitivecontent is going to have an
impact on you, regardless ofyour history with trauma.
Challenging content ischallenging.
Also, trigger warnings did notimprove test scores among
participants with or without ahistory of traumatic experiences
.
Lastly, and most interesting tome in this first study, is that
(20:47):
the participants who had traumarelated to the sensitive
content, their positive emotionswere significantly lower with
the trigger warning than when notrigger warning was given.
In other words, they were morenegatively impacted by the
material when it came with atrigger warning.
These are the people we aretrying to protect with trigger
(21:09):
warnings and they're being morenegatively impacted.
In the second study, Boysen andtheir team looked at the same
research questions as in theirfirst study, but instead of
sexual assault, they usedcontent related to suicide.
They also had the same orsimilar findings to the first
study, but they also found thatthe study participants who
(21:30):
received trigger warningsbelieved more strongly that
trigger warnings are necessarythan participants who did not
receive trigger warnings.
In other words, exposure totrigger warnings seemed to make
people expect them or view themas necessary when any content
covers any challenging topic.
(21:51):
Also, interestingly, thoseparticipants who received
trigger warnings believed thatthese warnings are necessary for
everyone, not just those who'dexperienced trauma.
And in their third study,Boysen and their team replicated
the first two studies, whichwere done in adult participants,
in college classrooms withcollege students.
(22:14):
They found that triggerwarnings in these groups had
similar efficacy and impacts.
All told, the research teamconcluded that trigger warnings
are ineffective tools when itcomes to reducing distress in
people with personal traumaticexperience with sensitive
material.
Additionally, they concludedthat trigger warnings do not
(22:36):
help increase or improvelearning.
The most interesting findings,in my opinion, came from a
recent 2023 meta-analysisconducted by Victoria Bridgland
and their team.
The team looked at all currentempirical studies on the
efficacy and effects of triggerwarnings, with a focus on
(22:59):
response affect, avoidance,anticipatory affect, and
educational outcomes.
To break down these terms,response affect involves
emotional reactions to theactual sensitive material, such
as a passage about sexualassault.
Avoidance is the blocking ofone's own exposure to specific
(23:22):
content or material.
Anticipatory affect involvesemotional reactions to the
trigger warnings themselves,before being exposed to the
sensitive material.
And educational outcomes, inthis context, involve
comprehension or understandingin the sense of, do trigger
(23:44):
warnings help someone bettercomprehend the specific content
in question?
When it came to response affect, the research team found that
trigger warnings had very littleimpact on response affect.
Contrary to both sides of thetrigger warning debate, there
was really no overall impact onemotional reaction to the
(24:07):
sensitive material itself.
In other words, triggerwarnings do not mitigate or
reduce distress or anxiety.
They don't do much of anything,in this regard.
One explanation could be thatpeople simply see the trigger
warnings and ignore them, glossover them.
But this doesn't explain theresearch results related to the
(24:28):
increased negative emotions andincreased distress that occurs
during the anticipatory period,in other words, the time
directly following the viewing,seeing, or hearing of the
trigger warning, but beforeexposure to the actual sensitive
material.
When it came to avoidance, theresearch team led by Bridgland
(24:50):
found that trigger warnings hada negligible effect on avoidance
.
Their findings matched previousresearch showing that people
are very unlikely to avoidcontent when they know it'll be
distressing or alarming.
In fact, studies found thatwhen people were given the
choice between options with orwithout trigger warnings, they
(25:12):
were more likely to choose thecontent that came with warnings.
This could be the result of theso-called and well-documented
forbidden- fruit effect thatshows that alarming content is
often seen as more attractive ordesirable than other content.
The researchers write that,quote, taken together, the
(25:33):
current study and other researchsuggests that trigger warnings
do not seem to be an effectivemethod of preventing vulnerable
populations from engaging withdistressing stimuli, end quote.
And here the term vulnerablepopulations refers to those with
PTSD or other relatedconditions.
(25:54):
When it came to anticipatoryaffect, the researchers found
that trigger warnings increaseddistress and anxiety, consistent
with concerns from critics oftrigger warnings.
These findings were supportedby both subjective scales, in
the form of participantsself-rating, and objective
(26:14):
scales, in the form ofphysiological and psychological
measures.
The researchers note that,quote, this finding appears to
be consistent across thedifferent trigger warning types
used across studies, attestingto the robustness of this
effect, end quote.
They also note that theincrease in anticipatory affect
(26:38):
could indicate that people arebracing themselves for upcoming
negative emotional impacts ofthe sensitive material.
Finally, when it came toeducational outcomes or
comprehension, Bridgland andtheir team found that trigger
warnings have no effect on thecomprehension or understanding
(26:59):
of the material in question.
If anything, trigger warningscan increase apprehension,
anxiety, and distress when itcomes to participating in
learning environments.
So not really something thatyou would want in universities
or college settings, or reallyany setting when you're learning
.
The researchers concluded thattrigger warnings are, quote,
(27:22):
fruitless, although they doreliably induce a period of
uncomfortable anticipation, endquote.
And that, quote, triggerwarning should not be used as a
mental health tool, end quote.
So, in conclusion, and to wrapup episode 33, if you're
wondering why I don't includetrigger warnings, I hope this
(27:44):
serves as a suitable andextensive- enough response.
If you have any comments orquestions, as always, my email
address is in the show notes.
Well, that's all I have for youtoday.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Until next time, bye.
Today I'm doing something a bit different.
I'm going to be discussingtrigger warnings.
While this topic isn't directlyrelated to autism or autism
research, it does come up a lotin content related to autism and
neurodiversity.
It's actually almost a giventhese days that any content that
(00:25):
includes discussion ofsensitive topics will have
trigger warnings.
But just because something ispervasive doesn't make it best
practice, nor does it make itsafe, specifically
psychologically safe in thiscase.
It's recently come to myattention that some listeners
(00:46):
think I should include triggerwarnings at the beginning of The
Other Autism episodes, shownotes, and on the accompanying
website.
I realize that I cover a lot ofsensitive topics.
This has come up now a handfulof times, so I decided to devote
an entire episode to this.
My thinking is that if this hascome up so many times, many of
(01:10):
you must be sitting therewondering why I don't include
trigger warnings.
I think I did actually includetrigger warnings in an episode
or two, but for the most part Iavoid them and I avoid any kind
of content warnings or anythinglike that.
You may think this episodeisn't relevant to you and you
might be considering whether ornot you want to stick around to
(01:31):
listen, but anyone interested inpsychology or mental health
will likely enjoy learning aboutwhat I found when I looked at
the research into triggerwarnings, and a lot of the
research is quite recent.
I will say that I have beenworking in communications for
more than a decade now, mostlyin science and health
(01:51):
communications, and this topicof trigger warning has existed
for a very long time.
Also, as many of you know, butjust for the sake of newer
listeners, I was doing amaster's degree program in
counseling psychology before Iswitched to a master of health
studies program, which Icompleted just this past
December.
I have a special interest inpsychology and a lot of the work
(02:14):
I do in researchcommunications, certainly not
all, but a lot, ends up beingrelated to psychology in some
way.
All that to say, I have reallytaken time to explore the topic
of trigger warnings and theireffectiveness.
It's been one of my, I guessyou could say, favorite topics
over the years that keeps comingup.
(02:36):
As far back as 2016, I'd saybefore the research on trigger
warnings really took off,I interviewed Dr.
Suzanne Pineles about herthoughts on trigger warnings.
Dr.
Pineles is a psychologist atthe National Center for PTSD in
the United States and it was herview at the time that trigger
(02:57):
warnings can come with a lot ofunforeseen harms and
psychological consequences,which is perhaps surprising in a
time when we have come toexpect them or take them for
granted.
And Dr.
Pineles's feedback came at atime preceding a lot of the
research on trigger warnings.
Her views came mostly from avery deep understanding of
(03:20):
post-traumatic stress disorder,other trauma-related conditions,
as well as clinical experiencesof working with those with
complex trauma.
Turns out, the research hassince supported much of what she
told me.
I think it would seem to mostof us that trigger warnings are
helpful or beneficial, and thatwas definitely what I used to
(03:41):
think, especially when I firstheard about them.
But in many ways, they'reactually contrary to
trauma-informed care andtrauma-informed approaches.
Before I get into the researchon all of this, I wanted to take
a moment to thank Caitlin,Dave, and Nicole for their super
generous one-time shows ofsupport to The Other Autism
(04:02):
podcast.
Thank you so, so, so, so much.
I also wanted you to know thatI save the notes you include
with your donations.
They go into a special folderand I will cherish them forever.
I also wanted to thank the 10people who have now joined The
Other Autism's Patreon, which isstill brand new and finding its
(04:22):
way.
Check out links in the shownotes to either send in a
one-time show of support throughthe Buy Me a Coffee website or,
if you're interested in monthlysupport, you can join the
Patreon and what that gives youis exclusive content and access
to The Other Autism community.
I just opened the group chat onPatreon, which works through
(04:45):
the Patreon smartphone app.
This provides a way toprivately chat with me and other
Patreon members who arespecifically part of The Other
Autism's Patreon page.
Any questions about Patreon oranything covering what I've just
talked about, you can alwaysemail me at kristen dot hovet at
(05:05):
gmail dot com.
The email address is also, asalways, in the show notes.
What kind of exclusive contentwill Patreon members get?
Well, they're currently gettingbehind the scenes photos and
videos, as well as extra contentfrom some recent podcast
episodes.
I'm also planning on developingThe Other Autism reading
(05:28):
episodes, which are audio-onlyand feature me reading to
listeners.
I plan to read about a chapteror so in each of these episodes,
depending on the book, and willcontinue until we finish the
book.
The books I read will come fromthe public domain, so we don't
run into any copyright issues.
I'm thinking about startingwith 20,000 Leagues Under the
(05:50):
Sea, which I've never actuallyread.
This idea came about fromseveral listeners emailing me
and also commenting on YouTubeabout how they find my voice
soothing, and some have evenrequested episodes of me just
talking about anything.
But instead of just anything, Ithink reading books would
actually be best for this.
Also, I love books, so I thinkthis kind of works well as
(06:12):
Patreon content.
If there's interest, I will alsostart accepting Patreon
members' questions that I willanswer on Patreon exclusively,
meaning you have to be a paidPatreon member to view those.
These questions would be advicecolumn- type questions, but in
addition to my responses, wecould also crowdsource responses
(06:32):
from other patrons.
The cool thing about Patreon isyou can sign up using your real
name or you can create ausername so no one knows your
identity.
The link to the Patreon is inthe show notes, but if you'd
like to head there now, checkout Patreon.
That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com,forward slash TheOtherAutism,
(06:55):
all one word.
If you're interested innon-monetary ways to support the
show, please head to YouTube,if you aren't there already, hi
people on YouTube, to like andsubscribe.
If you're listening on ApplePodcasts or Spotify or wherever
else you get your podcasts,please consider leaving a rating
and or a review.
(07:16):
It really, really helps interms of getting new listeners
and telling the algorithm to doits thing.
So trigger warnings.
It's important to start bysaying I don't judge or think
any less of anyone who usestrigger warnings or expects them
(07:37):
.
The intentions behind triggerwarnings are kind, sweet, noble.
The intentions are not what I'mquestioning.
With the use of triggerwarnings, people want to show
solidarity and support for thosewho have experienced trauma or,
in some cases, for those whohave specific phobias.
(08:00):
They want to protect thesefolks and, by giving trigger
warnings, they hope to help themin their journey towards
healing.
Proponents of trigger warningsstate that these warnings
increase inclusivity and helpthose with post-traumatic stress
disorder avoid re-experiencingsymptoms such as flashbacks.
(08:20):
They also believe that triggerwarnings help give people the
opportunity or choice to engageor not engage with sensitive
content or at least help themprepare to engage with the
content.
Critics of trigger warnings, onthe other hand, think that
trigger warnings threaten freespeech, academic freedom, and
(08:43):
that they hamper learning.
They also believe that triggerwarnings prevent people from
engaging with certain materialthat could actually be
beneficial to them, even ifchallenging.
These critics think thattrigger warnings impair the
building of psychologicalresilience and lead to
unreasonable or unrealisticexpectations about the world.
(09:05):
All told, critics of triggerwarnings think we could actually
be doing harm to survivors oftrauma in the long run.
Trigger warnings, they say,might actually reinforce the
importance of their past trauma,making trauma central to their
identities or personalities.
Indeed, people who view theirtrauma this way, as core to who
(09:27):
they are, tend to have worse andlonger-lasting trauma-related
symptoms.
Before we go any further, Ithink it's important to really
define trigger warnings.
A trigger warning is anystatement given at the beginning
of some piece of media, like anarticle, podcast, book, TV show
(09:47):
, film, etc.
to help audience membersprepare for or avoid content
that may trigger memories,emotions, or mental states
related to their past traumaticexperiences.
The purpose of trigger warningsis to help a person,
specifically someone with acutestress disorder, post-traumatic
(10:09):
stress disorder, or some othertrauma-related disorder, avoid
distress, discomfort, or anxiety.
Trigger warnings differ fromolder content labeling, which is
labeling that's provided asguidance for parents or
caregivers, for example, toalert them to content that they
may wish to keep from their kids.
(10:30):
Or sometimes it's helpful to bealerted to content we might not
want to view or play in theworkplace around colleagues and
supervisors.
Content labeling is more of away to help contextualize
content so that the audiencemember can judge the
appropriateness of viewing orshowing someone else the content
(10:50):
at a specific time and specificplace.
Content labeling is foreveryone, regardless of mental
health or emotional status.
While there is often overlap onthe types of content where
you'll see or hear both contentlabeling and trigger warnings,
such as content covering sexualor physical abuse, trigger
(11:12):
warnings originated on onlinefeminist message boards around
the year 2008 to specificallyprotect trauma survivors from
confronting sensitive material.
And then the use of triggerwarnings very rapidly expanded
to classrooms, social mediaplatforms, and to virtually
(11:33):
every type of media that exists.
Interestingly, trigger warningsare a kind of community-based
intervention, but they took offin terms of usage without the
rigorous scientific evidencewe've come to expect from this
type of community-basedintervention or action.
You'll now see or hear themused on content covering a
(11:56):
variety of topics, includingtalk about police, racism,
animal cruelty, crime, death,alcohol use, bodily fluids,
eating disorders, scars,nightmares, seizures, being
paralyzed, masturbation,suffocation, body shaming, and
the list goes on and on and onand on.
(12:20):
Discussions and public debateabout trigger warnings have
often been very politicallycharged and complex.
Most importantly, they havebeen data-poor or terribly
lacking in evidence.
For a bit of personal background, my initial suspicions about
trigger warnings came about assomeone with complex trauma, and
(12:42):
these suspicions came aboutafter I initially was very
excited about trigger warnings.
So I've explored my owntriggers in great detail, often
alongside a therapist, and Iknow they aren't as basic as the
mention or description ofsomeone else's trauma, even if
that trauma is quite related toor aligned with my own.
(13:05):
Some people might get triggeredfrom these types of mere
mentions or descriptions, but mytriggers are very specific and
have to do with specific, andthe key here is combined stimuli
.
As in, to be triggered, I needall these various stimuli to be
happening at pretty much thesame time.
(13:26):
My triggers are related tospecific smells, while also
being in a specific scenario,feeling very specific ways in my
body, and surrounded byspecific people or types of
people.
Even certain kinds of light arekey elements in my personal
triggers, or at least some ofthem.
(13:49):
Also, trigger warnings coverobviously bad experiences or
scenarios that many finddisgusting or gross, but a lot
of us are triggered by what mostpeople would think of as
totally neutral or even happysituations or scenarios.
For example, I'm triggered bytalk of menopause or mention of
(14:09):
pregnancies, deliveries, thehaving of babies in general.
I'm also triggered by thesights, sounds, and smells of
state fairs and carnivals, ifthey have certain elements in
place.
And this dates back topartially memory- blocked,
shadowy, incredibly traumaticexperiences from childhood.
(14:30):
I know others who are triggeredby representations of happy
families or families sittingaround to give gifts or eat
dinner or celebrate holidays.
Others I've read about areseverely triggered by the sights
and sounds of springtime,people playing baseball or other
team sports, or the sight ofgolf carts in the rain.
(14:53):
So how do you put triggerwarnings on this type of content
?
I mean, this type of content,this sort of neutral or happy
content, is no less triggeringthan the content that's
obviously disturbing, like rapeor murder.
It's just different.
You'd have to add triggerwarnings to literally everything
(15:15):
, every single type of content,to cover the full range of
potential triggers that someonewith trauma, especially complex
trauma, might experience.
But what does the research say?
Before getting into some of thetrigger warning- specific
research, I'd like to talk aboutsome research or knowledge
regarding post-traumatic stressdisorder or PTSD.
(15:37):
An article by Payton Jones andtheir team cited past PTSD
research conducted by variousteams from 1986, 1999, 2003, and
2018.
This collection of evidencefound that, although avoidance
of triggers or reminders oftrauma, quote, reduces anxiety
(15:59):
in the short run, it maintainsor worsens PTSD in the long run,
end quote.
Avoidance is simply not a goodcoping strategy for those with
PTSD and definitely not a goodlong-term strategy if you're
hoping to improve, reducesymptoms, or even lose your PTSD
diagnosis altogether.
(16:21):
Still citing this body ofPTSD-related evidence, the
researchers state that one mainelement of standard treatment
for trauma-related conditionsincludes, quote, graduated
prolonged exposure to traumacues, end quote.
Which is especially useful forlong-term well-being, especially
(16:41):
when this exposure takes placein controlled settings.
All told, they state, avoidingtrauma cues is likely to be,
quote, much more harmful fortrauma survivors in the long
term, end quote.
Jones and their team also notedthat only around 4% of
traumatic events result in PTSD.
(17:01):
While many people assume thatPTSD is widespread, the majority
of trauma survivors actuallydon't go on to develop PTSD.
Many also tend to assume thattrauma leads to permanent
psychological change, but thisis far from the truth.
Psychological resilience goes along way in reversing the
(17:25):
damaging effects of trauma.
In their own original research,Jones and their team endeavored
to find out whether triggerwarnings improve psychological
and emotional coping in traumasurvivors when they're exposed
to sensitive or triggeringmaterial.
They found, quote, substantialevidence that trigger warnings
(17:47):
increase the degree to whichparticipants viewed their worst
event as central to their lifenarrative, end quote.
And those with the worst PTSDsymptoms had increased anxiety
when they were given triggerwarnings as opposed to when they
were not given trigger warnings.
They conclude that, quote, thiseffect is ironic in the sense
(18:12):
that trigger warnings may bemost harmful to the individuals
they were designed to protect,end quote.
Jones and their team, quote,find no evidence-based reason
for educators, administrators,or clinicians to use trigger
warnings, end quote.
And that using unvettedinterventions such as trigger
(18:35):
warnings is irresponsible tovictims of trauma.
In a series of three studies,Guy Boysen and their team looked
at trigger warnings in thecontext of education and
teaching.
If effective, the researcherswrote, quote, trigger warnings
should decrease distress andincrease learning, end quote.
(18:56):
The general idea is that ifindividuals are not distressed
and not overly anxious, thenlearning will be better or will
improve.
And if trigger warnings helpavoid distress or anxiety, then
trigger warnings thereforesupport or improve learning and,
by extension, support orimprove education in general, or
(19:20):
so the thinking goes.
I'm going to briefly summarizethe results of this team's
findings because I really wantto save room for the
meta-analytic research I found,which is scientific analysis of
several studies all about thesame topic.
If you'd like to read thisresearch for yourself, the link
is in the show notes along withthe other studies I cover here.
(19:42):
So in the first study, Boysenand their team set out to
discover if trigger warningsgiven on content related to
sexual assault influenceemotional responses to sensitive
material, whether triggerwarnings affect test performance
related to sensitive material,and whether trigger warnings
(20:03):
have the same effect on peoplewith and without traumatic
experiences related to thesensitive content.
The research team found thatpositive emotions decreased and
negative emotions increasedafter exposure to sensitive
content, regardless of whetheror not a trigger warning was
(20:23):
given to the study participants.
In other words, sensitivecontent is going to have an
impact on you, regardless ofyour history with trauma.
Challenging content ischallenging.
Also, trigger warnings did notimprove test scores among
participants with or without ahistory of traumatic experiences
.
Lastly, and most interesting tome in this first study, is that
(20:47):
the participants who had traumarelated to the sensitive
content, their positive emotionswere significantly lower with
the trigger warning than when notrigger warning was given.
In other words, they were morenegatively impacted by the
material when it came with atrigger warning.
These are the people we aretrying to protect with trigger
(21:09):
warnings and they're being morenegatively impacted.
In the second study, Boysen andtheir team looked at the same
research questions as in theirfirst study, but instead of
sexual assault, they usedcontent related to suicide.
They also had the same orsimilar findings to the first
study, but they also found thatthe study participants who
(21:30):
received trigger warningsbelieved more strongly that
trigger warnings are necessarythan participants who did not
receive trigger warnings.
In other words, exposure totrigger warnings seemed to make
people expect them or view themas necessary when any content
covers any challenging topic.
(21:51):
Also, interestingly, thoseparticipants who received
trigger warnings believed thatthese warnings are necessary for
everyone, not just those who'dexperienced trauma.
And in their third study,Boysen and their team replicated
the first two studies, whichwere done in adult participants,
in college classrooms withcollege students.
(22:14):
They found that triggerwarnings in these groups had
similar efficacy and impacts.
All told, the research teamconcluded that trigger warnings
are ineffective tools when itcomes to reducing distress in
people with personal traumaticexperience with sensitive
material.
Additionally, they concludedthat trigger warnings do not
(22:36):
help increase or improvelearning.
The most interesting findings,in my opinion, came from a
recent 2023 meta-analysisconducted by Victoria Bridgland
and their team.
The team looked at all currentempirical studies on the
efficacy and effects of triggerwarnings, with a focus on
(22:59):
response affect, avoidance,anticipatory affect, and
educational outcomes.
To break down these terms,response affect involves
emotional reactions to theactual sensitive material, such
as a passage about sexualassault.
Avoidance is the blocking ofone's own exposure to specific
(23:22):
content or material.
Anticipatory affect involvesemotional reactions to the
trigger warnings themselves,before being exposed to the
sensitive material.
And educational outcomes, inthis context, involve
comprehension or understandingin the sense of, do trigger
(23:44):
warnings help someone bettercomprehend the specific content
in question?
When it came to response affect, the research team found that
trigger warnings had very littleimpact on response affect.
Contrary to both sides of thetrigger warning debate, there
was really no overall impact onemotional reaction to the
(24:07):
sensitive material itself.
In other words, triggerwarnings do not mitigate or
reduce distress or anxiety.
They don't do much of anything,in this regard.
One explanation could be thatpeople simply see the trigger
warnings and ignore them, glossover them.
But this doesn't explain theresearch results related to the
(24:28):
increased negative emotions andincreased distress that occurs
during the anticipatory period,in other words, the time
directly following the viewing,seeing, or hearing of the
trigger warning, but beforeexposure to the actual sensitive
material.
When it came to avoidance, theresearch team led by Bridgland
(24:50):
found that trigger warnings hada negligible effect on avoidance
.
Their findings matched previousresearch showing that people
are very unlikely to avoidcontent when they know it'll be
distressing or alarming.
In fact, studies found thatwhen people were given the
choice between options with orwithout trigger warnings, they
(25:12):
were more likely to choose thecontent that came with warnings.
This could be the result of theso-called and well-documented
forbidden- fruit effect thatshows that alarming content is
often seen as more attractive ordesirable than other content.
The researchers write that,quote, taken together, the
(25:33):
current study and other researchsuggests that trigger warnings
do not seem to be an effectivemethod of preventing vulnerable
populations from engaging withdistressing stimuli, end quote.
And here the term vulnerablepopulations refers to those with
PTSD or other relatedconditions.
(25:54):
When it came to anticipatoryaffect, the researchers found
that trigger warnings increaseddistress and anxiety, consistent
with concerns from critics oftrigger warnings.
These findings were supportedby both subjective scales, in
the form of participantsself-rating, and objective
(26:14):
scales, in the form ofphysiological and psychological
measures.
The researchers note that,quote, this finding appears to
be consistent across thedifferent trigger warning types
used across studies, attestingto the robustness of this
effect, end quote.
They also note that theincrease in anticipatory affect
(26:38):
could indicate that people arebracing themselves for upcoming
negative emotional impacts ofthe sensitive material.
Finally, when it came toeducational outcomes or
comprehension, Bridgland andtheir team found that trigger
warnings have no effect on thecomprehension or understanding
(26:59):
of the material in question.
If anything, trigger warningscan increase apprehension,
anxiety, and distress when itcomes to participating in
learning environments.
So not really something thatyou would want in universities
or college settings, or reallyany setting when you're learning
.
The researchers concluded thattrigger warnings are, quote,
(27:22):
fruitless, although they doreliably induce a period of
uncomfortable anticipation, endquote.
And that, quote, triggerwarning should not be used as a
mental health tool, end quote.
So, in conclusion, and to wrapup episode 33, if you're
wondering why I don't includetrigger warnings, I hope this
(27:44):
serves as a suitable andextensive- enough response.
If you have any comments orquestions, as always, my email
address is in the show notes.
Well, that's all I have for youtoday.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Until next time, bye.
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