A UNIVERSITY lecturer has discussed how humour and laughter are playing key roles in overcoming the fear many people are feeling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Tracey Platt, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Sunderland, said humour is a psychological phenomenon that can make things easier to bear when faced with serious situations.

She said: "Even if you have not actively laughed about it in the past few days you will certainly have been sent many corona cartoons by friends and relations who want to brighten up your day or help them remain connected.

"The flood of internet videos and joke pictures that allude to this circumstance between home-working and quarantine and all the problems that bring is a logical response for us.

"For many people, this is a situation that they experience for the first time. You try to deal with the unfamiliar circumstances in all possible ways, one such way is with humour. During crises such as this pandemic, humour and the mechanisms that take effect enable people to laugh at the situation, and thus they become less afraid of it."