Factors Affecting the Acceptability of Suicide

Abstract

The present study examined whether attitudes toward suicide vary as a function of the age and gender of the suicide victim, the gender of the evaluator, and the type of illness that precipitates the suicide. The participants in the study were 780 college students who were administered a questionnaire consisting of one of twelve scenarios describing a fictitious individual who has decided to commit suicide, as well as a series of evaluative scales and questions about the individual and his/her decision. The scenarios varied in terms of the age of the victim (i.e., forty-five vs. seventy), the gender of the victim, and the precipitating illness (i.e., chronic depression, chronic physical pain, or terminal bone cancer). Evaluations of suicide tended to be significantly more favorable when the evaluators were male, when male victims were being judged, when elderly victims were being evaluated, or when terminal cancer was the precipitating illness.