The lyrics of English pop songs are among the most miserable form of writing, a new survey has revealed.
Academics from the US and Australia found that English songs ranked 22nd out of 24 ‘happiness’ samples.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and reported by the Times.
It found that lyrics from English songs were grimmer than the language found in Russian literature. Songs including Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now by the Smiths and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart could arguably support this hypothesis.
Previously, psychologists speculated that humanity may have an inborn streak of optimism, known as the Pollyanna principle. The researchers found that while song lyrics were among the most miserable form of writing, the majority of samples were had a more positive bias.
Academics, writing in PNAS, said: ‘Overall, our major scientific finding is that when experienced in isolation and weighted properly according to use, words, which are the atoms of human language, present an emotional spectrum with a universal, self-similar positive bias.’
Researchers in the US and Australia chose about 10,000 words from each of ten languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese.
These samples were subsequently divided between 24 ‘corpora’, according to whether they had come from books, social media, films, news reports.
Visit the PNAS journal website to read the full report.
Academics from the US and Australia found that English songs ranked 22nd out of 24 ‘happiness’ samples.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and reported by the Times.
It found that lyrics from English songs were grimmer than the language found in Russian literature. Songs including Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now by the Smiths and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart could arguably support this hypothesis.
Previously, psychologists speculated that humanity may have an inborn streak of optimism, known as the Pollyanna principle. The researchers found that while song lyrics were among the most miserable form of writing, the majority of samples were had a more positive bias.
Academics, writing in PNAS, said: ‘Overall, our major scientific finding is that when experienced in isolation and weighted properly according to use, words, which are the atoms of human language, present an emotional spectrum with a universal, self-similar positive bias.’
Researchers in the US and Australia chose about 10,000 words from each of ten languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese.
These samples were subsequently divided between 24 ‘corpora’, according to whether they had come from books, social media, films, news reports.
Visit the PNAS journal website to read the full report.
