US Mood Captured on Cartograms

The researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University analyzed data on how Twitter is being used throughout the US. They created a series of cartograms – Pulse of the Nation , depicting the mood change among Americans as inferred from Twitter posts. Happier mood is colored green and becomes redder with Tweets becoming unhappier. The authors used ANEW word list to infer the mood of each Tweet. In this data visualization viewers can glean how the mood of Americans varies throughout the day.

As this data analytics visualization suggests the US residents tend to post happier morning and late evening Tweets. Due to time lag between the west and the east coasts mood variation patterns are delayed by approximately three hours going from New York to Los Angeles.

Northeastern and Harvard researchers also found that there is a variation during week days. As one would expect weekends tend to be the happiest as evidenced by surge in positive Tweets.