Science News Archive

Country Music Exposure Linked To Suicide

This year's Ig Nobel prize for medicine - one of a series of awards intended to recognise slightly more unusual research said to make people laugh, then think - has been awarded to 2 American doctors who have discovered an unusual cause of suicide - country music ! Steven Stack, from Wayne State University, Michigan, and James Gundlach, of Auburn University, Alabama, found that cities in which radio stations play an above-average amount of country music have higher than average suicide rates ! Apparently, however, black people seem to be immune to the effect - the suicide rates among African Americans was not affected by the country music market, say the researchers !

9th Oct 2004