The researchers also found that a fear of what the future holds on an economic front is a major concern.
Researchers analysing South Africans’ moods say we are generally displaying higher happiness levels since the beginning of the national coronavirus lockdown, but reimposing the ban on the sale of alcohol led to an immediate decrease.
On 26 March, South Africa went into lockdown. These lockdown regulations were implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19 and prepare health systems to cope with the expected increased burden of Covid-19 cases. The Gross National Happiness team comprises Professor Talita Greyling of the University of Johannesburg, Dr Stephanié Rossouw of the Auckland University of Technology, in collaboration with Afstereo.
Interestingly, neither the number of Covid-19 cases nor the number of Covid-19 deaths have any effect on happiness.Why are people happy to stay at home? Analysing the tweets, the researchers found the following: Staying at home minimises the risk of contracting Covid-19; therefore, even though the number of Covid-19 cases and Covid-19 deaths do not affect South Africans’ happiness, the fear of contracting Covid does play a role.
On the other hand, the reimposed alcohol ban drove happiness levels down. On 12 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa reimposed the alcohol ban with immediate effect. This led to an immediate decrease in the happiness levels. The happiness levels reached an all-time per hour low of 4.2 at 20.00pm on Sunday evening.
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