Speaking Spanish might just make you happier, according to science

Spanish tops the world’s ten most spoken languages for positive word use, with researchers linking its warmth to a natural human bias toward optimism.

If speaking a certain language could influence your mood, Spanish would be a powerful antidepressant. According to an international study led by the University of Vermont and the MITRE Corporation, among the ten most widely spoken languages in the world, Spanish contains the highest proportion of words perceived as positive.

The research was spearheaded by mathematicians Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth from the Computational Story Lab. They combed through billions of words drawn from 24 different sources — everything from books and music lyrics to TV subtitles, social media posts, and newspaper articles.

How positivity in language is measured

To reach their conclusions, the researchers examined the 100,000 most commonly used words in ten languages, including English, Korean, Arabic, and Chinese. Each word was rated by 50 native speakers on a scale from 1 (very negative) to 9 (very positive). This approach allowed them to measure the emotional resonance of each term — essentially, how good or bad it makes people feel when they hear or say it.

The Pollyanna principle: more positive than negative words

The findings echo what psychologists call the Pollyanna principle — the universal tendency to use more positive than negative words. Even though the news cycle may seem filled with gloom, human language naturally leans toward optimism.

This tendency holds true even in seemingly hostile environments like Twitter threads or online comment sections. Yet among all languages studied, Spanish ranked as the most positive, while Chinese displayed the least pronounced positivity bias.

Words like alegría (“joy”), amor (“love”), and felicidad (“happiness”) appear more frequently and with warmer tones in Spanish texts and conversations. Even in dramatic contexts — think telenovelas filled with betrayal and heartbreak — the language still carries a bright emotional charge.

The team also created something called the hedonometer, a tool that measures happiness levels in online messages. Unsurprisingly, “hahaha” emerged as one of the most common expressions across all languages.

Does speaking spanish actually make you happier?

The study stops short of proving that speaking a more positive language like Spanish will directly boost your mood. But if it’s true that the words we use shape our thoughts, then perhaps all it takes is a Latin pop song, a romantic comedy dubbed in Spanish, or a few choice words like corazón (“heart”) or esperanza (“hope”) to see the day in a different light.

Source: Vermont Public / PNAS

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