Don't worry, be happy - positive FB updates can spread happiness

Posting a positive message on Facebook can be contagious.

Researchers in the US have found upbeat status updates can help spread happiness among your friends.

They looked at more than a billion status updates by more than 100 million Facebook users in the top 100 most populous cities in the US, using automated text analysis.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, examined posts by people in cities where it was raining — known to increase the number of negative posts and reduce the number of positive ones — and the impact this had on the status updates of people in cities where it was not raining.

Rain is known to increase the number of negative posts.

Each additional positive post generated about 1.75 positive posts amongst friends. Each additional negative post yielded 1.29 more negative posts.

“Our study suggests that people are not just choosing other people like themselves to associate with but actually causing their friends’ emotional expressions to change,” said lead author James Fowler, professor of political science in the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego.