Using Trigger Warnings to Keep Our Community Safe
When posting about topics that could be potentially triggering, it is important to consider using a 'trigger warning' to help keep our community safe for people vulnerable to emotional distress.
A trigger warning is most often used before posts containing information on topics that some may find disturbing - such as violence, sexual abuse, self-harm or eating disorders.
It can be hard to know when using a trigger warning may be appropriate, but our Support Plus Team Leaders are never too far away to help you out!
When using trigger warnings, it is also often helpful to write the word 'Trigger Warning' out in full. You can then put a short description of the potential trigger risk in brackets () so that people can know what your trigger warning is about. It's really helpful if we can then add a break between the warning and the actual content - as often we can read things before we've even processed them! This could, for example, be in the form of bullet points to help prevent 7 Cups members from reading something triggering by mistake.
I'll add an example below!
Trigger Warning (Post Contains Information about Eating Disorders - with Details of Weight-Loss).
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*Post would continue here.*
Hope this all makes sense! Any questions, please do let us know :)
@JessHobson Unfortunately, there is research showing that trigger warnings do not keep anyone safe.
Here's a summary of the findings: Do Trigger Warnings Actually Work?
One of the studies, published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, concluded:
- Trigger warnings increase peoples' perceived emotional vulnerability to trauma.
- Trigger warnings increase peoples' belief that trauma survivors are vulnerable.
- Trigger warnings increase anxiety to written material perceived as harmful.
Charlie
Thank you for sharing this with us Charlie! My personal opinion is that a trigger warning would only take a few seconds to add, and it would give someone the option to ‘opt out’ of reading about a triggering topic - rather than it being a surprise! I’ve read these articles and they are certainly very interesting 💚 My post was about encouraging members to ‘consider’ using a trigger warning, and hopefully they can read the research that you have added to help them to make this decision! 🙂
@RarelyCharlie @JessHobson
These are really interesting! I can't say yes or no to both sides at all. I might make a forum discussion thread about this!
These are super helpful! I definitely appreciate this, as certain topics are very hard for me to read and this will help me avoid or at least prepare for that. Thank you!
@CatCommander it's really interesting to hear so many opinions on this 💚