In the book Opening Skinner's Box, written by Lauren Slater, it is stated by a man named David Phillips that people tend to change their behavior based on hearing the news about crimes that have been committed. Phillips even changes his behavior too by noticing recurring events that show crimes influence others to start doing these bad deeds. This makes him become prudent by exerting himself to prove this theory that he discovered, which is that crimes inspire more committed acts. Phillips is, in fact, being cautious through the instances of making a fuss about trying to show the odds of survival change over time, proving his theory is real by using statistics, and making his concept officially true so others can be aware. Phillips becomes vigilant through the fact that he overworks himself to warn others of his theory by trying to expose the odds of survival change. According to Slater, "Dr. Phillips has done us a service by demonstrating the odds for survival when we travel change…show more content… Slater herself writes, "Phillips has dubbed this phenomenon "the Werther effect," because after Goethe published The Sorrows of Young Werther, about an overwrought fictional character who killed himself for unrequited love, a rash of suicides rippled through eighteenth-century Germany (107)." Slater's statement basically refers that Phillips linked the cause of these suicides to a book, written by Goethe, which later confirmed his theory because of the evidence of how people killed themselves after reading the book. Regardless, Phillips goes through the trouble of making his theory confirmed in society by making this phenomenon official. By making this official, he now exposes the truth about crimes being more frequent after they are committed. This will help others to be alert of suicides or any crime just how Phillips is
