Here’s a link to an old Time magazine article on suicides being contagious. There’s a lot of information since then on the topic and the answer is yes, they are.
From my own experience, it seem typical that when one individual commits suicide, a few other members of the same group commit suicide in the near future. By group I mean either a similarity in age, or profession or other characteristic that’s distinguishing.
I mention that in light of the recent event at the IRS.
George Sodoni does not appear to have triggered men to imitating him, although I wonder if there was a spike in suicides, car crashes and similar incidents in Pennsylvania after him, and if there will be spike in them in Austen.
The difference with Sodoni was he was easily portrayed as a sexual loser, not many people identify themselves as such, even if they are in that category.
