Talita Greyling posted on March 17, 2020 17:12
Cape Town – Well-being economists Professor Talita Greyling, from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), and Dr Stephanié Rossouw, from Auckland University of Technology, have shared the latest Happiness Index, which shows a significant low in South Africa as a result of Covid-19.
The Happiness Index of South Africa, after a brief unexpected spike, dropped below average last Tuesday, and has remained there.
The index measures the sentiment levels of South Africans on a scale from zero to 10, with 5 being neutral.
According to the team, the levels of happiness dropped to unusual lows.
“The team expanded their analyses and now also analyse the emotions of South Africans. In their analyses they differentiate between eight emotions, which are captured in the text of Tweets, namely joy, anticipation, trust, disgust, anger, surprise, fear and sadness,” UJ said.
“The strongest emotion measured, related to Covid-19, is fear (18.37%).
“It is interesting to see that the next highest measured emotion is trust. People trust the situation to improve over time.
"These tweets have a strong religious undertone, furthermore it seems that people trust or distrust the actions the government has put into place to curb the pandemic.
"The third highest emotion is anticipation, thus uncertainty about the future.”
The Happiness Index of South Africa, after a brief unexpected spike, has dropped below average.
Cape Times
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