Trigger warnings fall flat, but safe spaces build trust in the classroom

Triggering warnings may not help students feel more supported, but safe space messages do so.

A new study revealed that being informed that they were in “safe space” made students more comfortable, confident and positive towards the person who delivered them. The work is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Researchers from Flinders University and employees in the United States have studied the responses of 738 university students based in the United States.

Each student looked at a short conference linked to the trauma introduced by an instructor with a trigger warning, a sure space message, both or not.

Students then evaluated the instructor on the reliability, care for the well-being of students, political inclinations and openness to controversial discussion.

Lecturer in psychology Dr. Victoria Bridgland says that these practices are common in university classrooms and are supposed to support students emotionally, but they send very different signals.

“Some people believe that trigger warnings help students feel supported by the teacher,” said Dr. Bridgland of the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work.

“But our research shows that trigger warnings do not do so. However, saying that the classroom is a safe space makes students more positive and comfortable.”

The study revealed that the trigger warnings had little impact on how the students saw the instructor or the class. This was true even if many students said they supported trigger warnings.

Safety space messages have made a clear difference. The students felt more psychologically in safety and more willing to initiate difficult conversations. They also perceived that the instructor was more attentive and trustworthy.

Interestingly, messages from the safe space also reported a political bias, students perceiving the instructors who used them as being more liberal and favorable to censorship.

“This is not just a question taught,” said Dr. Bridgland. “It is also the emotional and psychological climate in class.”

Safe space messages promote confidence and opening. But they also carry political signals which can affect the way students interpret the neutrality of the instructor.

“This counts because the small clues at the start of a lesson can shape the way students feel and behave,” she said.

“The instructors must be reflected on how they supervise these messages.”