INFOGRAPHIC: A rollercoaster of South African emotions on Election Day

Research shows how the moods of South Africans changed during Election Day.

May 13, 2019

Danielle Garrett 2 minutes read

Did you get to experience a bunch of happy chappies in the queue on Election Day? This might be due to people’s optimism towards a brighter future, and their role in making it happen.

Professor Talita Greyling and doctor Stephanié Rossouw recently developed the “Happiness Index” (GNH) based on sentiment analysis of the daily tweets of South Africans. They then applied this to a sentiment balance algorithm to get a happiness score.

Dawie Roodt, one of the leading economists in the country, assists in interpreting this data daily to understand the mood/temperament of the country and how it affects our economy.

Now that Election Day is over, take a look at the tentative report on the national happiness on Election Day.

Here is what the GNH revealed about your happiness levels during Election Day:

Happiness at 08:00

People woke up refreshed and happy. Usually, the happy hour starts at around 06:00 in the morning, much earlier and happiness levels were already surging at 03:00 on Election Day. An all-time high was recorded at 7.5 at 06:00 and people stayed very happy until 8:00, which was higher compared to the same time during all the previous days. Happiness levels also affect the increase in the rand’s value.

Happiness at 11:00

The first dip of the day was recorded. After the high at 08:00, happiness started decreasing. However, the initial surge in happiness seen early in the morning lasted much longer than on a normal day and the happiness scores per hour were at a higher level than any time during the last week. The rand started to slip somewhat, the same as happiness, during this time period.

Happiness at 15:00

Happiness levels decreased somewhat further from 11:00 to a score of 6.42 at 13:00, the lowest for the day, but fortunately started to pick up again. At 15.00 the score was 6.91.

Happiness at 21:00

South Africans experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Wednesday. Happiness dropped off again at around 17:00 to a new low score of 6.04. This is also lower compared to other days. Fortunately, there was an unexpected, but welcomed, turnaround and the people’s happiness increased to 6.5 by 20:00. This is also higher compared to previous days and the high held until just before 22:00. Then the energy of the day took its toll and happiness dropped to 5.34, lower than other days.

– Information obtained from Efficient Group