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WARNINGS before lectures. Speakers banned. Debate stifled. Students are increasingly making demands about what can and can鈥檛 be said on campus. This month, online magazine Spiked revealed that 55 per cent of UK universities are censoring speech.

For many, it is a worrying sign that students are turning away from a diversity of thought that would promote critical thinking, the very thing university education is designed to support.

But can students鈥� concerns be dismissed as mere political correctness? Or do trigger warnings and microaggression policies help prevent real psychological harm?

Trigger warnings with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that what they were about to see might trigger distressing flashbacks. They are now being used in universities as a heads-up to students that they might find course material upsetting.

Although there has been no direct test of their effectiveness, it is well known that people are generally less stressed by threatening situations if they know about them in advance, because they feel more in control. This may be particularly true for people with PTSD. A study found that their startle response, a sign of anxiety, when exposed to unexpected loud noises was with generalised anxiety disorder or no disorder. There was no difference between the groups when the noise was expected.

So, there may be a clinical basis for giving individually tailored warnings to diagnosed students who know their triggers, akin to allowing students with conditions like ADHD extra time in exams 鈥� but requests for warnings go far beyond this. According to a by the US National Coalition Against Censorship, students want warnings for subjects such as race, sexual orientation, disability and colonialism (See 鈥�Diversity rises鈥�).

鈥淒o trigger warnings and microaggression policies help prevent real psychological harm?鈥�

鈥淧eople use [the phrase 鈥榯rigger warning鈥橾 in relation to anything that might upset you or you might have trouble with,鈥� says psychologist Guy Boysen of McKendree University in Illinois. 鈥淭hat is 100 per cent a separate thing.鈥�

In some cases,聽trigger warnings may help create a constructive classroom atmosphere. Although there are some exceptions, many students are not asking to disengage or avoid studying, says at PEN America, an organisation that has conducted a . In many cases, they are just asking to be prepared. 鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 think twice about a warning flashed before a violent or sexually graphic movie.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, says Arno Kumagai, vice-chair of education at the University of Toronto鈥檚 department of medicine, words can be traumatic: a discussion on racism that uses explicit racist language can traumatise people in a similar way to PTSD flashbacks, he says.

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Indeed, studies have shown that overt discrimination can have tangible, detrimental effects, so it is plausible that discussions involving discriminatory language could do the same. For example, , race and sexuality is associated with depression, anxiety and higher blood pressure. Racism, it has been argued, could .

Some students say that more subtle forms of discrimination can cause harm, too. In a , psychologist Derald Wing Sue at Columbia University in New York and his co-authors defined microaggressions as an everyday slight that invokes negative attitudes towards a minority group, whether intended or not. The negativity comes from hidden or implicit bias, they asserted. Although any isolated incident may not seem so significant, the cumulative effect can take its toll.

Since then, many studies have detailed microaggressions that specifically affect different minority groups, and found links with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, .

Some universities are using Sue鈥檚 work to develop awareness programmes, but Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, says the science is far from certain. In a , he criticised the subjective nature of microaggressions. 鈥淚f someone is convinced that they have been microaggressed against, they have,鈥� he says.

Traumatic words

Microaggression research also fails to account for individual differences, says Lilienfeld. It could be that people who say they receive regular microaggressions score highly for 鈥渘egative emotionality鈥�: a tendency to perceive oneself and the world through a negative lens. What鈥檚 more, because this trait is linked to depression and anxiety, it makes it hard for researchers to determine the extent to which microaggressions, by themselves, cause mental distress.

Sue argues that Lilienfeld鈥檚 focus on the individual dismisses the real experiences of marginalised groups. He sees talk of microaggressions as a tool for highlighting mistreatment, in a similar way to how police body cameras have been used. 鈥淎frican Americans [have been] saying for years that they have been treated unfairly by police,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen body cameras catch what is going on, people begin to realise that maybe they were correct.鈥�

So how do we figure out who is right? Boysen wants to study trigger warnings with a trial in which students are randomly selected to be warned about a controversial topic. Their anxiety, stress and mood could be measured before and afterwards, perhaps revealing unintended consequences. 鈥淭he warning may be sensitising to students who wouldn鈥檛 normally be sensitised to those things. Right now, we just don鈥檛 know,鈥� says Boysen.

鈥淚f someone is convinced that they have been microaggressed against, they have鈥�

In terms of microaggressions, Lilienfeld says we should have trials of awareness training programmes before rolling them out widely. It may be that they help reduce prejudice or, as some studies have suggested, they could result in a backlash as people rebel against being told what to think and do. 鈥淥ne thing we鈥檝e learned over and over again in psychological and educational research is that good intentions simply aren鈥檛 enough,鈥� he says.

But Sue says the science is clear, and it is time to act. 鈥淭housands of studies have established that microaggressions are real, that they do great harm to the targets and we need to concentrate on anti-racism strategies.鈥� Waiting for scientific certainty that a programme reduces prejudice is a luxury that people who are affected by microaggressions don鈥檛 have, he says. 鈥淰ery few social policies, in the US or elsewhere, are simply based on science. They are based on values of the society and politics.鈥�

Sue and his colleagues are developing 鈥渕icrointerventions鈥�, subtle or overt strategies to counteract microaggressions, such as immediately expressing disapproval, enabling the receiver to feel in control and reduce rumination about what they could have said.

Some might view microaggression policies as an affront to free speech. But this can be seen another way, says Glenn Bass. The free speech defence gets rolled out in favour of controversial viewpoints, but students making their own concerns heard are also exercising their freedom of speech, she says.

鈥淚t is to everyone鈥檚 benefit that we continue to believe that open discourse and debate is healthier for the society as a whole,鈥� says Glenn Bass. 鈥淏ut it is important to make sure that everyone actually believes that, rather than feeling like they have been badgered into going along with it鈥�.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎lert: May contain science鈥�