Emotions expressed on Facebook are contagious

Flickr CC By: Maria Elena

Emotions expressed on Facebook are contagious
(Image credit: Flickr CC By: Maria Elena)

Emotions expressed on Facebook can be contagious, according to researchers at the University of California. Researchers studied the messages of more than 100 million users, and found that "emotional changes in one person caused emotional changes in another person."

The data, which was first published in the Wall Street Journal, showed that the number of negative posts increased 1.16 percent when it was raining, and positive comments dropped 1.19 percent. And when friends living in other cities where it wasn't raining read a gloomy message, their moods also darkened.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.