Heavy metal, religiosity, and suicide acceptability

Abstract

There has been little work at the national level on the subject of musical subcultures and suicide acceptability. The present work explores the link between 'heavy metal' rock fanship and suicide acceptability. Metal fanship is thought to elevate suicide acceptability through such means as exposure to a culture of personal and societal chaos marked by hopelessness, and through its associations with demographic risk factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, and education. Data are taken from the General Social Survey. A link between heavy metal fanship and suicide acceptability is found. However, this relationship becomes nonsignificant once level of religiosity is controlled. Metal fans are low in religiosity, which contributes, in turn, to greater suicide acceptability.