Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Air pollution lowers Chinese urbanites’ expressed happiness on social media

Nature Human Behaviour volume 3, pages 237–243 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

High levels of air pollution in China may contribute to the urban population’s reported low level of happiness1,2,3. To test this claim, we have constructed a daily city-level expressed happiness metric based on the sentiment in the contents of 210 million geotagged tweets on the Chinese largest microblog platform Sina Weibo4,5,6, and studied its dynamics relative to daily local air quality index and PM2.5 concentrations (fine particulate matter with diameters equal or smaller than 2.5 μm, the most prominent air pollutant in Chinese cities). Using daily data for 144 Chinese cities in 2014, we document that, on average, a one standard deviation increase in the PM2.5 concentration (or Air Quality Index) is associated with a 0.043 (or 0.046) standard deviation decrease in the happiness index. People suffer more on weekends, holidays and days with extreme weather conditions. The expressed happiness of women and the residents of both the cleanest and dirtiest cities are more sensitive to air pollution. Social media data provides real-time feedback for China’s government about rising quality of life concerns.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The geography of Weibo posts, and the relationship between PM2.5 concentration and happiness index.
Fig. 2: The heterogeneous effects of PM2.5 on expressed happiness on different days and weather conditions and across gender groups.
Fig. 3: The heterogeneous effects of PM2.5 on expressed happiness across cities.

Similar content being viewed by others

Code availability

The code that support the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Zheng, S. & Kahn, M. E. Understanding China’s urban pollution dynamics. J. Econ. Lit. 51, 731–772 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Welsch, H. Environment and happiness: valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data. Ecol. Econ. 58, 801–813 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Levinson, A. Valuing public goods using happiness data: the case of air quality. J. Public Econ. 96, 869–880 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Dodds, P. S., Harris, K. D., Kloumann, I. M., Bliss, C. A. & Danforth, C. M. Temporal patterns of happiness and information in a global social network: hedonometrics and Twitter. PLoS One 6, e26752 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Mitchell, L., Frank, M. R., Harris, K. D., Dodds, P. S. & Danforth, C. M. The geography of happiness: connecting twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place. PLoS One 8, e64417 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Frank, M. R., Mitchell, L., Dodds, P. S. & Danforth, C. M. Happiness and the patterns of life: a study of geolocated tweets. Sci. Rep. 3, 2625 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Victor, P. Questioning economic growth. Nature 468, 370–371 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Easterlin, R. A in Global Handbook of Quality of Life (eds Glatzer, W., Camfield, L., Møller, V. & Rojas, M.) 283–299 (Springer, 2015).

  9. Easterlin, R. A., Morgan, R., Switek, M. & Wang, F. China’s life satisfaction, 1990–2010. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 9775–9780 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Xin, W. & Smyth, R. Economic openness and subjective well-being in China. China World Econ. 18, 22–40 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ebenstein, A. et al. Growth, pollution, and life expectancy: China from 1991-2012. Am. Econ. Rev. 105, 226–231 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ebenstein, A., Fan, M., Greenstone, M., He, G. & Zhou, M. New evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China’s Huai River Policy. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 10384–10389 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Dockery, D. W. et al. An association between air pollution and mortality in six US cities. N. Engl. J. Med. 329, 1753–1759 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Graff Zivin, J. & Neidell, M. Environment, health, and human capital. J. Econ. Lit. 51, 689–730 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lelieveld, J., Evans, J. S., Fnais, M., Giannadaki, D. & Pozzer, A. The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale. Nature 525, 367–371 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Luechinger, S. Air pollution and infant mortality: a natural experiment from power plant desulfurization. J. Health Econ. 37, 219–231 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Jerrett, M. Atmospheric science: the death toll from air-pollution sources. Nature 525, 330–331 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Pope, C. A. et al. Lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality associated with ambient air pollution and cigarette smoke: shape of the exposure-response relationships. Environ. Health Perspect. 119, 1616–1621 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Chen, X., Zhang, X. & Zhang, X. Smog in Our Brains: Gender Differences in the Impact of Exposure to Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance Discussion Paper 1619 (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2017).

  20. Lavy, V., Ebenstein, A. & Roth, S. The Impact of Short Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance and Human Capital Formation Working Paper 20648 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014).

  21. Zhang, X., Chen, X. & Zhang, X. The impact of exposure to air pollution on cognitive performance. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 9193–9197 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Zivin, J. G. & Neidell, M. The impact of pollution on worker productivity. Am. Econ. Rev. 102, 3652–3673 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Chang, T., Zivin, J. G., Gross, T. & Neidell, M. The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity: Evidence from Call-Center Workers in China Working Paper 22328 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016).

  24. Currie, J., Zivin, J. G., Mullins, J. & Neidell, M. What do we know about short- and long-term effects of early-life exposure to pollution?. Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 6, 217–247 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Currie, J., Davis, L., Greenstone, M. & Walker, R. Environmental health risks and housing values: evidence from 1,600 toxic plant openings and closings. Am. Econ. Rev. 105, 678–709 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhang, L., Sun, C., Liu, H. & Zheng, S. The role of public information in increasing homebuyers’ willingness-to-pay for green housing: evidence from Beijing. Ecol. Econ. 129, 40–49 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Moretti, E. & Neidell, M. Pollution, health, and avoidance behavior: evidence from the ports of Los Angeles. J. Hum. Resour. 46, 154–175 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang, J. & Mu, Q. Air pollution and defensive expenditures: evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 92, 517–536 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Herrnstadt, E. & Muehlegger, E. Air Pollution and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Chicago Microdata Working Paper 21787 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2015).

  30. Li, J., Massa, M., Zhang, H. & Zhang, J. Behavioral bias in haze: evidence from air pollution and the disposition effect in China. SSRN https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2993763 (2017).

  31. Heyes, A., Neidell, M. & Saberian, S. The Effect of Air Pollution on Investor Behavior: Evidence from the S&P 500 Working Paper 22753 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016).

  32. Kahneman, D. & Krueger, A. B. Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. J. Econ. Perspect. 20, 3–24 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Zijlema, W. L. et al. The association of air pollution and depressed mood in 70,928 individuals from four European cohorts. Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health 219, 212–219 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Luechinger, S. Valuing air quality using the life satisfaction approach. Econ. J. Nepal. 119, 482–515 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Smyth, R., Mishra, V. & Qian, X. The environment and well-being in urban China. Ecol. Econ. 68, 547–555 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Zhang, X., Zhang, X. & Chen, X. Happiness in the air: how does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being? J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 85, 81–94 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Welsch, H. & Kühling, J. Using happiness data for environmental valuation: issues and applications. J. Econ. Surv. 23, 385–406 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Kahn, M. E. & Zheng, S. Blue Skies over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China (Princeton Univ. Press, 2016).

  39. Lu, Y. et al. Characteristics of public concern on haze in China and its relationship with air quality in urban areas. Sci. Total Environ. 637-638, 1597–1606 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Lin, Y., Zou, J., Yang, W. & Li, C.-Q. A review of recent advances in research on PM2.5 in China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health 15, 438 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Zhang, Y.-L. & Cao, F. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in China at a city level. Sci. Rep. 5, 14884 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. He, J. et al. Air pollution characteristics and their relation to meteorological conditions during 2014–2015 in major Chinese cities. Environ. Pollut. 223, 484–496 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Sun, C., Kahn, M. E. & Zheng, S. Self-protection investment exacerbates air pollution exposure inequality in urban China. Ecol. Econ. 131, 468–474 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Baylis, P. Temperature and Temperament: Evidence from a Billion Tweets Working Paper 265 (Energy Institute at HAAS, 2015).

  45. Baylis, P. et al. Weather impacts expressed sentiment. PLoS One 13, e0195750 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Zhang, Q. et al. Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade. Nature 543, 705–709 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Bayer, P., Keohane, N. & Timmins, C. Migration and hedonic valuation: the case of air quality. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 58, 1–14 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Zheng, S., Cao, J., Kahn, M. E. & Sun, C. Real estate valuation and cross-boundary air pollution externalities: evidence from Chinese cities. J. Real Estate Fin. Econ. 48, 398–414 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Pope, C. A. 3rd & Dockery, D. W. Health effects of fine particulate air pollution: lines that connect. J. Air Waste Manag. Assoc. 56, 709–742 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Pope, C. A. 3rd, Ezzati, M. & Dockery, D. W. Fine-particulate air pollution and life expectancy in the United States. N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 376–386 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Barwick, P. J., Li, S., Rao, D. & Zahur, N. The morbidity cost of air pollution: evidence from consumer spending in China. SSRN https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2999068 (2018).

  52. Cohen, A. J. et al. The global burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health A 68, 1301–1307 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Pui, D. Y. H., Chen, S.-C. & Zuo, Z. PM2.5 in China: measurements, sources, visibility and health effects, and mitigation. Particuology 13, 1–26 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Zheng, S., Pozzer, A., Cao, C. X. & Lelieveld, J. Long-term (2001–2012) concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and the impact on human health in Beijing, China. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 15, 5715–5725 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. Wong, C. A., Merchant, R. M. & Moreno, M. A. Using social media to engage adolescents and young adults with their health. Healthcare 2, 220–224 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Wang, S., Paul, M. J. & Dredze, M. Social media as a sensor of air quality and public response in China. J. Med. Internet. Res. 17, e22 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Kay, S., Zhao, B. & Sui, D. Can social media clear the air? A case study of the air pollution problem in Chinese cities. Prof. Geogr. 67, 351–363 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Economy, E. C. China’s environmental future: the power of the people. McKinsey Quarterly https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/asia-pacific/chinas-environmental-future-the-power-of-the-people (2013).

  59. Zhang, Q. et al. Asian emissions in 2006 for the NASA INTEX-B mission. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 9, 5131–5153 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Li, M. et al. MIX: a mosaic Asian anthropogenic emission inventory for the MICS-Asia and the HTAP projects. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. 15, 34–813 (2015).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Becker, S. O. Using instrumental variables to establish causality. IZA World of Labor https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.250 (2016).

Download references

Acknowledgements

J.W. acknowledges the research support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2017YFB0503500), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the CAS (no. XDA19040503). S.Z. acknowledges the research support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 71625004), and MIT China Future City Lab. C.S. acknowledges National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 71603158), Ministry of Education in China Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (no. 16YJC790090), ‘Chen Guang’ project supported by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (no. 16CG43). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Siqi Zheng, Jianghao Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Future City Lab, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Center for Real Estate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Siqi Zheng

  2. State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jianghao Wang

  3. School of Urban and Regional Science, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China

    Cong Sun

  4. Hang Lung Center for Real Estate and Department of Construction Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xiaonan Zhang

  5. Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Matthew E. Kahn

Authors
  1. Siqi Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jianghao Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cong Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiaonan Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Matthew E. Kahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

S.Z., J.W., C.S. and M.E.K. did the research design and wrote the paper. S.Z., J.W. and C.S. estimated the empirical models. J.W., C.S. and X.Z. collected and analysed the data.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Siqi Zheng or Cong Sun.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–8, Supplementary Tables 1–13, Supplementary Figure 1, and Supplementary References.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zheng, S., Wang, J., Sun, C. et al. Air pollution lowers Chinese urbanites’ expressed happiness on social media. Nat Hum Behav 3, 237–243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0521-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0521-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene