Twitter could save your life. Using the micro-blogging site as a diagnostic tool, the chances of someone succumbing to coronary heart disease can be plotted using their tweets, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University.
The research team compiled a set of measures that tracked expressions of negative emotions – anger, stress, and fatigue, for example – and found that users who conveyed those emotions in tweets were at greater risk of suffering heart disease. Conversely, Twitter users who expressed more positive emotions, like love, excitement, and optimism, were associated with a lower risk.
The study, published in Psychological Science, used Twitter as an effective bypass to the troublesome survey system such a study would usually rely on. Johannes Eichstaedt, lead researcher on the study said, “Getting this data through surveys is expensive and time consuming, but, more important, you’re limited by the questions included on the survey. You’ll never get the psychological richness that comes with the infinite variables of what language people choose to use.”
This seems as good a reason as any to make Twitter a more positive environment.
Source: Penn News
