WHEN this goes to print there will be just a few days left to plan for Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 9-16). It was news to me as well but actually, it's not a moment too soon. The explosion of instant information streaming through countless media channels means we hear, see and read about the really bad things people do to other people in far too much detail far too often.

Media research has shown for some time now that most people think the threat of violence is much higher than the reality of the risk. In 2012 more than half of those who took part in a UK survey said they thought violent crime rates are rising, when actually they have fallen fairly dramatically in the past 20 years.

But when the drama of something like a rare child kidnapping is played out in every news channel in the land, we're bound to be affected by it.

Part of the problem of that effect is misplaced fears from misjudged risks which lead people to do daft things, like drive children to school when the school is within walking distance from home. From a purely statistical perspective children who are driven to school are at a higher risk than those who walk: in the short term, being in a car accident, and longer term, suffering from the health effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle. A general sense of wariness in society doesn't help either. So a break from assuming people are mostly bad, when actually people are mostly good, is just the ticket.

It's hard not to feel more connected to the people around you when you're on the receiving end of a kind gesture or a smile in response to one. I still recall looking wearily up a flight of stairs when a passerby stooped down to take one end of the pushchair to help me up the steps with my sleeping daughter. After a 'thanks' and a 'no problem' she was gone but the legacy of that gesture is that I have been inclined to go out of my way to do the same ever since.

It's easy to see how one kind act creates a chain reaction. Say someone gives an extra generous tip to a waiter. Feeling a bit flush, he might later buy a coffee for the person next to him, losing patience in a slow cafe queue held up by a trainee, who might then be spared an unpleasant encounter from the now pleasantly surprised person one who has just been offered a coffee from a complete stranger. It's worth a shot.