As trigger warnings became fashionable over the last decade, many argued that they were artistically stifling, patronising, and even redundant given the fame of many of the works targeted. But it turns out there is a simpler objection: trigger warnings don’t work.

Amazon branded the Bond franchise with a range of cautionary messages

That is the finding of a recent study from Australia, which argues that the advisories are worse than useless. Not only did the authors find that a trigger warning failed to persuade 90 per cent of participants to consistently avoid potentially traumatic content on social media, in some cases it may have actually piqued their interest – with one mentally shaky fellow claiming ‘sometimes my brain wants to be triggered’, so the warning ‘grabs my attention mor

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