Happiness is found far from home, Twitter-based study finds

Happiness could be found the further we get from home, a new study has suggested.

Researchers at the University of Vermont found that Twitter users used more positive language in their tweets the further they got from home.

The study terms the feelings expressed on Twitter as "Twitter sentiment."

It analyzed 37 million public tweets from about 180,000 users.

Researchers used location data to track where the user was tweeting from – at home or away.

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Using key words associated with happiness, the researchers compared tweets depending on the distance from home.

Tweets that were further from home contained more happy and positive words and contained less profanity than those at home or work.

The answer as to why this occurs could be quite simple: people are happier when on vacation or visiting friends.

Expressed happiness is also different from real happiness, which complicates the study.

Either way, it does not bode well for those who don't get out much.