Suicide related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

In complicated ways depression is related to suicide. If the national climate could be made depressive by mass media coverage of a depressing event (for example, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy), the suicide rate theoretically ought to increase, unless depression were not related to suicide during time of great national focus. This hypothesis was investigated by using a questionnaire survey requesting information concerning suicide rate for the period November 22--30 for the 17 years 1956--1972. Sixty-one cities were randomly selected and contacted; 29 responded. A total of 74 suicides--48 males and 26 females--were reported during the 17 years studied. The hypothesis that more suicides should have occurred during 1963 was not supported. No suicides occurred during November 22--30 in 1963, the year of the Kennedy assassination. The results were significant at the .01 level. The finding that during a time of focused national crisis fewer suicides occur coincides with the findings of Durkheim (1897/1951).