Positive stories take sting out of bad news

News stories that report on the best of humanity can help take the "sting" out of negative news, research suggests.

A study found that people who saw news about human kindness after news about a terrorist attack, or other immoral acts, felt fewer negative emotionsandretainedmorebeliefinthegoodnessofhumanity compared to people given just the bad news.

The findings suggest positive news can help provide an emotional buffer against negative news.

According to the research, viewingkindacts,versusmerely amusing acts, was especially effective in helping people retain beliefs about the goodness of others.

Kathryn Buchanan from theUniversityofEssex,andcolleagueGillianSandstrom,from the University of Sussex, said: 'Newsstoriesfeaturingthebest of humanity take the sting out of items exploring the worst of humanity.

'This allows people to believe, to maintain a core belief that is crucial for good mental health - that the world and the people in it are fundamentally good.'

For the study researchers split 1,800 people into different groups.

Everyonewasshownone-to three-minute-long video news clips or given brief news stories to read.

The immorality group was given news reporting on a recent UK-based terrorist attack orsimilar,whilereportsofkind acts performed in response to the terrorist attack or unrelated kind acts were shown to the kindness group.

Light-hearted material was showntotheamusementgroup, and content from the immorality group plus either the kindness(immoralityandkindness), or the amusement (immorality and amusement) group.