Cited by 179Sentiment Analysis and Opinion MiningClimate Change and Health ImpactsPsychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Weather impacts expressed sentiment

Open access
Baylis, Patrick, Obradovich, Nick, Kryvasheyeu, Yury, Chen, Haohui, Coviello, Lorenzo, Moro, Esteban, Cebrian, Manuel, Fowler, James H.·2018·PLOS ONE

Abstract

We conduct the largest ever investigation into the relationship between meteorological conditions and the sentiment of human expressions. To do this, we employ over three and a half billion social media posts from tens of millions of individuals from both Facebook and Twitter between 2009 and 2016. We find that cold temperatures, hot temperatures, precipitation, narrower daily temperature ranges, humidity, and cloud cover are all associated with worsened expressions of sentiment, even when excluding weather-related posts. We compare the magnitude of our estimates with the effect sizes associated with notable historical events occurring within our data.

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  • Extreme heat can affect human mental health outcomes across a continuum of severity, from subclinical to life-altering.

    “Extreme heat can affect human mental health outcomes across a continuum of severity, from subclinical to life-altering.102,142–147”

    From The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: facing record-breaking threats from delayed action (2024) · cites this paper as [147]

    The Results (All expressed sentiment; page unavailable) report that positive expressions decline at temperatures above 30°C, supporting an association between heat and a subclinical measure of mood. The Discussion (page unavailable) cautions that expressed sentiment is only a possible proxy for underlying emotions. The paper does not establish life-altering mental health outcomes or a continuum of severity. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Authors
Baylis, P., Obradovich, N., Kryvasheyeu, Y., Chen, H., Coviello, L., Moro, E., Cebrian, M., & Fowler, J. H.
Affiliations
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
  • MIT Media Lab (US)
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
Obradovich, Nick
Venue
PLOS ONE
Published
2018-04-25
Volume
13
Issue
4
Pages
e0195750
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2750725423
Cited by
179
References
8
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 7
FWCI
10.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • e-Archivo (Carlos III University of Madrid) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (ES) (FIS2013-47532-C3-3-P, FIS2016-78904-C3-3-P)
  • National Science Foundation (DGE0707423, TG-SES130013, 0903551)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Keywords
weather and mood, sentiment, social media posts, temperature, precipitation, humidity, cloud cover, diurnal temperature range, Facebook, Twitter
MeSH terms
Emotions, Humans, Weather, Sample Size, Social Media

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