Emotional response to Yes result revealed

Australians experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in the lead up to and marriage equality vote, with thousands taking to Twitter to express their joy.

Joy and surprise were the leading emotions expressed by Australians following the announcement of the same sex marriage survey result.

Real time analysis of Twitter reaction conducted by the Black Dog Institute reveals a rollercoaster of emotions were felt by Australians in the hours leading up to and after Wednesday's 'Yes' vote was revealed.

"All of the emotions we monitor for rose after 10am but joy was overwhelmingly the predominate emotion, increasing 200 per cent compared to an average day," said Dr Tjeerd Boonstra from Black Dog Institute's Digital Dog team.

"These findings reveal important clues about Australians' emotional wellbeing in light of the survey, and the flurry of activity shows this was a hugely important occasion that people were really engaged with."

The We Feel analysis tool - developed with the CSIRO - captured thousands of tweets over a 16-hour period, this data was compared to average Twitter activity for Wednesdays in the six-months prior to result.

According to the analysis, three times as many Australians took to Twitter to react to the result compared to a typical day.

Fear-related tweets peaked at around 7am before dropping almost 100 per cent.

At 10am, 68.3 per cent of all tweets expressed joy, compared to 13.1 per cent expressing sadness. Tweets expressing surprise at this time rose by more than 150 per cent.


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Source: AAP


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