Presentation Title
Exposure to urban parks improves mood and reduces negativity on Twitter
Abstract
Our increasingly urban, indoor, and sedentary lifestyles are correlated with rising rates of depression. Here, we analyze the words written by individuals on Twitter to investigate the effects of urban nature exposure on mental health. Using sentiment analysis, which estimates the happiness of text based on the relative frequency of happy and sad words, we construct a time series of happiness for individuals who tweeted in a San Francisco park during the summer of 2016. Tweets in parks are significantly happier than tweets before park visits, and the increase in happiness lasts for several hours following park visitation. The marginal increase in happiness is greatest for Regional Parks, followed by Neighborhood Parks, followed by Civic Plazas and Squares. Park exposure corresponds with a shift away from negative words such as ‘no’ and ‘don’t’ and decrease in first person pronoun use.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Taylor Ricketts
Secondary Mentor Name
Chris Danforth
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Taylor Ricketts, Chris Danforth, Peter Dodds, Jarlath P.M. O'Neil-Dunne
Status
Graduate
Student College
Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources
Program/Major
Natural Resources
Primary Research Category
Food & Environment Studies
Secondary Research Category
Health Sciences
Exposure to urban parks improves mood and reduces negativity on Twitter
Our increasingly urban, indoor, and sedentary lifestyles are correlated with rising rates of depression. Here, we analyze the words written by individuals on Twitter to investigate the effects of urban nature exposure on mental health. Using sentiment analysis, which estimates the happiness of text based on the relative frequency of happy and sad words, we construct a time series of happiness for individuals who tweeted in a San Francisco park during the summer of 2016. Tweets in parks are significantly happier than tweets before park visits, and the increase in happiness lasts for several hours following park visitation. The marginal increase in happiness is greatest for Regional Parks, followed by Neighborhood Parks, followed by Civic Plazas and Squares. Park exposure corresponds with a shift away from negative words such as ‘no’ and ‘don’t’ and decrease in first person pronoun use.