Latency Period as Affected by News Content.

The factors that affect the latency period between attracting a target person's attention and delivering either good or bad news were examined. The subjects were 66 (34 female, 32 male) Canadian university students. Three hypotheses were confirmed: There was a longer latency period for bad news than for good news, women had a longer latency period for bad news than for good news and a longer latency period for delivering either bad news or good news than men did, and there was a longer latency period when women delivered bad news to a man than when women delivered bad news to a woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]