The UK maps its happiness with the iPhone

According to the latest research, it seems that it’s Tuesday, rather than the often-quoted Monday, when people are least happy…

Tuesday has been crowned the most miserable day of the week, according to a team of researchers monitoring the moodswings of over 20,000 participants.

Mappiness is a free iPhone application which tracks people’s feelings across the country. Created by George MacKerron and Susana Mourato of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the two-month long project aimed to better understand how emotions are affected by a person’s immediate environment.

Reportedly the first of its kind, the app ‘beeps’ users one or more times a day, enquiring on a movable scale how ‘happy’, ‘relaxed’ and ‘awake’ they are. GPS maps the current geographical location and links up with environmental data or the area.

Pollution, noise, weather conditions and the presence of ‘green’ areas are mapped alongside emotional responsesand sent to a confidential data store. Users can view old records of their emotions, and perhaps identify optimum conditions for emotional well-being.

Researcher George MacKerron said: ‘By tracking happiness across space as well as time, and by making novel use of a technology that millions of people already carry with them, we hope to find better answers to questions about the impacts of natural beauty, environmental problems – maybe even aspects of climate – on individual and national wellbeing.’

Analysing the results he said: ‘It seems plausible that on Monday the weekend has not quite worn off, but by Tuesday they are well into the working week and the following weekend is not yet in sight.’

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