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Tweeters Huddle By Happiness

As it turns out, happier people tend to tweet together, as do people who are less happy, with few tweets linking the disparate groups, reports New Scientist, citing research based on millions of tweets. "As the old adage goes, 'birds of a feather flock together' -- and it seems to be true even when tweeting," the magazine writes.

Measuring the emotional content of tweets as reflected by the presence of positive or negative words, scientists assessed the "subjective well-being" of the users through their tweets. The result? "It turns out that Twitter users are preferentially linked to those with whom they share a similar level of general happiness," psychologist Johan Bollen of the University of Indiana tells New Scientist.

Bollen and his colleagues don't yet know why tweeters behave this way, although he suspects that the emotions expressed even in short tweets have an infectious quality, lifting peoples' spirits or filling them with gloom, depending on what they read.

Read the whole story at New Scientist »

2 comments about "Tweeters Huddle By Happiness".
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  1. Alex Luken from Humana, March 17, 2011 at 1 p.m.

    Connected: The Surprising Power of our Social Networks by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, explains the "birds of a feather" effect. People are attracted to like people. Based on the Farmingham heart study data, people with similar lifestyles and outlooks are networked together.

  2. Laura Petersen from Resonate Insights, March 17, 2011 at 1:08 p.m.

    This makes complete sense. Physical relationships are frequently based on proximity. Virtual relationships aren't limited by that barrier so connecting with like minded individuals with similar life philosophies is one of the benefits from social networking tools like Twitter. People have always sought out other individuals that validate their values; positive or negative. So now birds of a feather can be classified as Chirpers or Squawkers depending on their slant.

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