If to speak a certain language could influence the mood, the Spaniard would be a powerful antidepressant. According to an international study conducted by the University of Vermont and the Mitre Corporation, among the ten most spoken languages in the world, Spanish contains the greatest amount of words perceived as positive.
The study was led by the mathematicians Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, of the Computational Story Lab, which analyzed billions of words from 24 different sources: from books to social networks, passing through musical texts, television subtitles and newspaper articles.
How to measure the positivity of a language
To get to this conclusion, the researchers analyzed the 100,000 most used words in ten different languages, including English, Korean, Arabic and Chinese. Each word was evaluated by 50 native speakers, on a 1 (very negative) scale to 9 (very positive). This made it possible to measure the “emotional resonance” of words, that is, how much they make those who listen to them or pronunciate them well.
Pollyanna’s principle: we use more positive than negative words
The phenomenon is linked to what psychologists call “Pollyanna principle”: the universal tendency to use more positive than negative words. Even if the world may seem full of depressing news, human language naturally tends to optimism.
A trend that confirms the optimistic instinct of language, even in apparently hostile environments such as Twitter or online comments. And among all the languages, Spanish is the one that shows the greatest linguistic positivity, while Chinese is the one in which this trend is less marked.
Words like “Alegría” (joy), “Amor” (love) and “Felicidad” (happiness) recur more often and with warmer tones in Spanish texts and conversations. Even in dramatic contexts such as telenovelas, the language still manages to convey a positive emotional charge.
The researchers also developed a “Hedonometer”, a tool that measures the level of happiness in the messages published online, confirming that “Hahaha” is one of the most frequent expressions in all languages.
Speaking Spanish really makes you happier?
It is not yet demonstrated whether to speak a more positive language such as Spanish can directly influence mood. But if it is true that the words we use moderate our thoughts, perhaps a Latin song are enough, a romantic comedy dubbed in Spanish or a few words like “Corazón” or “Esperanza” To start seeing the day with different eyes.
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