A professor at a medical school was giving a lecture on nutrition and food. A few medical students were very upset that the lecture mentioned the word “food” several times. They believed that the word, “food,” should have had a trigger warning before the lecture began. The reason given was that students with eating disorders may be triggered in the auditorium.

True story! The professor was dumbfounded. “Food” is considered a trigger?  How could the professor lecture on nutrition and not use the word? And how would these students become doctors if they could not tolerate the word, “food.” Regardless, students complained and the professor was sent to administration for sensitivity training.

If you work in education, you know what a trigger warning is and the attention this topic has drawn for the past few years. If you don’t know, a trigger warning is a statement made to prepare an audience for materials and subjects that they might find disturbing due to life experiences and trauma. Professors have been called on the carpet for not providing trigger warnings before presenting class content. Although, no one is certain what may trigger a person. But students have demanded these warnings be given.

Many universities have complied and insist trigger warnings are given. However, what does this say about coping if students can’t hear certain words? How will they cope with life outside the classroom?

Spoiler alert! Someone will use the word, “food,” in public! Maybe even at a restaurant!

Now, I am not minimizing people who have experienced real trauma. Please hear this. I have worked with numerous patients who have had serious trauma and their triggers are real. But when educational material simply makes you uncomfortable, that is not the same as having a trauma trigger.

So, one has to ask, is the idea of a trigger warning good or backed by research? Don’t we want to expand student minds and expose them to material that makes them uncomfortable at times? That was how I learned best. Thus, are students simply avoiding complicated ideas verses wrestling with them? One side says yes, we are coddling students and dumbing down education. The other says we are accommodating more diverse students with a variety of needs and need to be sensitive.

Back to the question. Are trigger warnings effective and do they actually work? If I provide a trigger warning in my class, does this help my students better prepare for the difficult material that may follow? Does the science back up the practice of calling out professors for their lack of sensitivity?

Researchers decided to look at these questions. A team at Australia’s Flinders University reviewed 12 research papers on trigger warnings. Their conclusion based on those 12 studies: Trigger warnings are neither helpful or harmful. The lead investigator was quoted as saying, “They don’t seem to do anything.” They didn’t seem to reduce student distress or lead to avoidance of materials.” And this was true of students regardless of whether or not they had past trauma.

What was interesting was this finding: Trigger warnings did increase the anxiety students felt before materials were introduced. And prior studies back this up, concluding that the more attention you place on victimization, the worse the person feels. Anxiety actually increases. In other words, these warnings can reinforce victimhood.

Still, some feel trigger warnings are a courtesy and a way to show human consideration. Others say, it gives power to a person to decide what they can or cannot handle. But faculty who know their content, decide what to present and all this does is pit faculty and students against each other. Faculty’s job is to teach, not traumatize students! No one person can possibly know what might trigger another person and always prepare in advance. And if the warnings are increasing anxiety, this is not the desired effect.

When the full range of human experience cannot be presented in an academic setting because a person might be triggered, is this education? Education tries to  broaden thinking, expand minds and open people up to multiple experiences, both good and bad? Yes, we should be empathetic to the life experiences of our students, but also provide referrals when needed if they can’t do the work education expects them to do.

I want students to be uncomfortable in their learning at times,  push through the material, not avoid it. This process of facing discomfort and anxiety leads to resiliency. So one has to wonder, are we hindering resilience?

Based on the data, it appears we are.