A recent study by Cornell researchers, has been analyze more than 500 million Twitter account. They’ve discovered what appears to be a worldwide pattern of happiness throughout the day.
Cornell sociologists Michael Macy and Scott Golder started to analyze the Twitter account between February 2008 and April 2009, looking for words that conveyed positive and negative emotions, as well as emoticons. The accounts represented more than two million users from 84 countries.
As the result, the study reveals that no matter how cranky people seemed when they woke up during the week, people around the world tend to be in a good mood by their breakfast time.
From there, moods start to fall, reaching a low in late afternoon, only to rebound in the early evening. The results held true despite geographical and cultural differences.
“Weekends followed the same pattern, but pushed back about two hours, most likely because people tend to sleep in on the weekends.” Golder said.
Scientists have previously used social media data to determine mood patterns in specific time zones and during holidays, but this is the first analysis of Twitter feeds to determine daily moods cross-culturally.
Despite these limitations, we can expect to see this trend continue as social scientists look for more data in our offhand status updates. You can read more about Macy and Golder’s research in the September 29 issue of Science.
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