In recent weeks, there has been considerable hand-wringing over the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why," which depicts the suicide of a teenage girl.

Though the show has received critical praise, the National Association of School Psychologists and others express concern the show might trigger suicidal thoughts in vulnerable teens. But does the evidence suggest that watching fictional media can result in imitative suicidal behaviors?

The idea of suicide contagion — that vulnerable individuals may be prompted toward suicide by peers, news media or fiction — is controversial. The best evidence appears to be for peer contagion, where exposure to a peer's suicide can increase risk among closely associated teens. For media, the evidence is less clear.

Much of that research has focused on the media. Concerns that news coverage of suicides might promote copycat suicides have prompted numerous groups, including the Centers for Disease Control, to release news media guidelines for covering suicides without glamorizing them.

Yet data linking news media to suicides has been mixed. In one famous study concerning suicides on the Vienna subway, the authors linked such suicides to news coverage, with suicides dropping after news media agreed to cover such suicides more carefully. Details from this study are surprisingly thin — the data source for suicides is left vague. And these results might simply be an ecological fallacy (when two things in the environment are mistakenly attributed to cause one another — say, Beyonce's salary year-to-year and the average global temperature).

Nor has this study been replicated in other cities with subways. By contrast, the suicide death of Kurt Cobain did not seem to spark copycat suicides. Other scholars, such as James Hittner at Charleston College, have suggested that research linking news media to imitative suicide has been methodologically weak, and when data are reexamined using more sound methods, evidence is less conclusive.

This is not to say that there is no evidence at all for news media contagion effects; but the evidence is not as definitive and consistent as sometimes suggested.

The evidence for fictional media influences is even weaker. A 2005 review of the research by psychologist Steven Stack concluded that studies examining fictional media were about 79 percent less likely to find evidence for contagion effects than studies of news media. A 2001 review of 34 studies came to similar conclusions, noting that methodological problems were common.

Part of the problem might be the assumption that objectionable content in media is directly linked to real life. In the last decade, new research has revealed that it's difficult clearly to attribute youth behavior to media, however objectionable that media seems to be. Violent video games are not responsible for violent youth crimes, and watching sexy media does not clearly link to outcomes like teen pregnancy.

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Similar concerns about the suicide risk of heavy metal music like Ozzy Osbourne and Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s proved ephemeral. And it is interesting that we worry over "13 Reasons Why" and yet teach "Romeo and Juliet" (as suicide glamorizing media as ever there was) to teens in high school.

Our relationship with media is more complex than that, and how we react to media often depends on why we chose to consume that show, book or game in the first place. Individuals respond very differently to the same media, and it is difficult to make direct attributions. It is possible that a particular teen might watch "13 Reasons Why" and feel more suicidal, but another teen might watch the same show and actually feel better. And yet another might watch a family show and conclude they'll never have such a loving family and become suicidal. It is just not as simple as "13 Reasons Why" equals suicide risk.

If the attention to "13 Reasons Why" helps families talk about mental health and suicide, this is a good thing. But scapegoating media comes with real risks that such efforts will refocus the conversations away from pressing issues such as family stress and mental health reform in the United States.

Dr. Chris Ferguson (@CJFerguson1111) is a professor of psychology at Stetson University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is coauthor of the book Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong and author of the mystery novel Suicide Kings.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It read "Romeo and Juliet" in high school.

