Settling as a ‘comfort food’ and ‘soul food’ of Koreans, data shows that chicken has a correlation with happiness. (Image : Pixabay)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) – It is a well known fact that Koreans are obsessed with chicken. As it is the most popular nighttime snack, and a sure hit that is always included when there is a gathering of a large number of people, chicken seems to bring up happy thoughts. Based on this observation, a Korean company has announced the creation of a ‘Chicken Index’ that offers a proxy of happiness levels.
Settling as a ‘comfort food’ and ‘soul food’ of Koreans, data shows that chicken has a correlation with happiness.
According to Daumsoft, a data analytics company, when chicken is mentioned on SNS, ‘happiness’ is also mentioned as a related term. Emotional terms such as ‘happy’, ‘love’, ‘merry’ and ‘pleasant’ appeared frequently as accompaniments to the word ‘chicken’.
Focusing on the correlation between chicken and happiness, Daumsoft developed its ‘Chicken Index’. The number of mentions of ‘chicken’ is combined with variables that can influence a person’s mood such as weather and stock market performance.
To comprehend the relationship between chicken and happiness, Daumsoft analyzed the number of times ‘chicken’ and ‘happiness’ were mentioned on SNS. The results showed that when the number of mentions of chicken increased, the number of mentions related to happiness increased as well.
When the weather was good, making people happy, the number of mentions of chicken also increased.
The stock market also had deep ties to the number of mentions of chicken. The data provided by the economic statistics system of the Bank of Korea (BOK) showed that the average market cap had a 0.4 correlation coefficient with the number of mentions of chicken. Daumsoft explained that two variables have a similar correlation when the correlation coefficient is between 0.3 and 0.7.
Mentions of chicken also increased when sports events such as the Olympics or English Premier League football matches were held.
January 3 marked the peak of the Chicken Index so far this year (1,644). It was the last day of the long holiday that started on Friday, January 1, and a day when English Premier League matches were aired. Many mentions of chicken appeared on SNS, such as “Having chicken with the whole family”, or “Chicken, the best way to close out the holidays”.
On the other hand, the index hit a low when the temperature dropped to -20 degrees Celsius on January 19 (1,152). The chicken index also dropped on the day the market cap of the stock market was nearly cleared out on January 4, due to the Chinese circuit breaker (1,486).
Officials at Daumsoft commented that people are usually in a happy state if they think about chicken, even though it might not actually lead them to consume it. They added that the chicken index they developed could be used as a measurement to show the happiness levels in everyday life.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
