Interesting analysis on the decline of positive sentiment in pop-music over the years
To try to understand why song lyrics have increased in negativity and decreased in positivity over time, we employed the theory of cultural evolution to see if the pattern can be explained via social learning biases.
There seems to be no conclusive reason for why this pattern has occurred but there are some likely contributors identified. There was another study on the decline of positive language in the US over time.
"..there are various social psychology research findings that show that the mere exposure to positive words or negative words can change your mood. Also, depending on our mood, we tend to use more positive or negative words. So very generally, this is an indicator that happiness may be on the decline in the U.S."
If there is a general decline in societal happiness, should be no surprise the pop-music lyrics mirror that same slide towards negativity.
To try to understand why song lyrics have increased in negativity and decreased in positivity over time, we employed the theory of cultural evolution to see if the pattern can be explained via social learning biases.
There seems to be no conclusive reason for why this pattern has occurred but there are some likely contributors identified. There was another study on the decline of positive language in the US over time.
"..there are various social psychology research findings that show that the mere exposure to positive words or negative words can change your mood. Also, depending on our mood, we tend to use more positive or negative words. So very generally, this is an indicator that happiness may be on the decline in the U.S."
If there is a general decline in societal happiness, should be no surprise the pop-music lyrics mirror that same slide towards negativity.
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