Thursday, September 29, 2011

Most people feel more positive at the beginning of the day


According to a new study, if you start the day feeling positive but get increasingly sad as the day goes on, you are in the majority. The study used Twitter to track mood swings and found that people have two happiness peaks early in the morning and again at about midnight.
Sociologists at Cornell University tracked tweets from more than 2 million Twitter users across the globe for over two years. Researchers found that the mood swing pattern was the same during the work week that is on weekends. Researchers said this emphasizes the important role of sleep and natural circadian rhythms on determining daily highs and lows.
Scott Golder, a co-author of the study said that Twitter provided them with a unique platform with which to look at these issues of mood swings across the globe. He said, "What was most surprising here was how consistent this pattern was across 84 countries."

1 comment:

  1. Hi!
    Interesting study. Morning I believe, midnight I do not - depends on your particular circadian rhythm - remember the extended phenotype. I find that workouts after about 4:00 pm don't do me any good, whilst other people don't even start moving until midday. I wonder how much the data are skewed by people stacking their tweets in advance with a scheduled release whilst they are actually in bed. Maybe that was addressed in the article? Have to go look.
    Thanks for the post.
    -k @FitOldDog

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