New research suggests that regularly watching television news may negatively influence racial bias towards social groups.

Researchers at the University of Houston looked at how long-term exposure to news could influence an "individuals' unconscious attitudes towards social groups," Outlook reported.

"In the United States, a large body of research indicates crime is overrepresented on local television news relative to the actual amount of crime that actually occurs in a community," researcher Temple Northup said in a statement. "Previous content analyses conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Santa Barbara have shown that that African-Americans are overrepresented as criminals on local television news when compared to their actual crime rates. In Austria, research has suggested foreigners are overrepresented as criminals in tabloid-style daily newspapers."

For the study, researchers collected and analyze data from more than 300 individuals. Participants had to complete a test that measures hidden bias people may have but are unwilling or unable to report. After the test, they answered a question "about their conscious attitudes towards African-Americans, as well as how many hours of local television news they watch per day," Outlook reported.

Northup found that long-term exposure to local television news, wherein African-Americans are depicted frequently and stereotypically as criminals, predicted increased negative implicit attitudes toward African-Americans, Phys.org reported.

"Viewers who watched more local television news demonstrated more unconscious negative attitudes toward African-Americans," Northup explained.

The findings, which are detailed in the International Journal of Communications, could contribute to a better understanding and awareness of how watching television news coverage may lead to a negative racial bias, which in turn can lead to other negative outcomes, such as discriminatory behaviors, Northup said.