delit1-4, Exercise 3: Testing the Werther effect

Model answer (check the method):

Claim: Werther caused a wave of imitations.

How to test:
1. Look for contemporary records: reports, court or church records, newspapers, letters. Do they name cases and link them to the book?
2. Look at the timing and numbers. Were there more cases after 1774 than before, or only a few reported ones?
3. Distinguish documented bans and warnings (which show alarm) from documented deaths (which show effect).
4. Read modern historians who have examined the evidence, and check what they conclude.
5. Be aware of later legend: the idea grew in retelling.

If the evidence is thin: call the claim "reported" or "debated", not "established", and say that the book was strongly emotional in its reception and that some authorities restricted it.

Note: this is a historical question about evidence; treat the subject with care.