Harvard University professor Jeannie Gersen suggested that trigger warnings may be detrimental to students.
Universities use trigger warnings to flag upsetting material in classes while offering students the ability to opt out of seeing the content. Gersen cited research indicating that it might be harmful for traumatized people to be alerted of such material in her New Yorker opinion article on Tuesday.
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“The results of around a dozen psychological studies, published between 2018 and 2021, are remarkably consistent, and they differ from conventional wisdom: they find that trigger warnings do not seem to lessen negative reactions to disturbing material in students, trauma survivors, or those diagnosed with P.T.S.D.,” Gersen wrote.
“If those suffering from P.T.S.D. were responding to trigger warnings by opting out of reading or discussing the flagged content, then … that would be concerning from a mental-health point of view, because the clinical consensus is that avoiding triggers worsens P.T.S.D,” she continued.
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Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder involves “systematic exposure to traumatic memories until their capacity to trigger distress diminishes,” she said.
Gersen added, “The perverse consequence of trigger warnings may be to harm the people they are intended to protect.”
