Hedonometer
Encyclopedia
A hedonometer or hedonimeter is a device used to gauge happiness
or pleasure
. Conceived of at least as early as 1880, the term was used in 1881 by the economist Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
to describe "an ideally perfect instrument, a psychophysical machine, continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual." More recently, it has been used to refer to a tool developed by Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth to gauge the valence
of various corpora, including historical State of the Union
addresses, song lyrics, and online tweets
and blogs.
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
or pleasure
Pleasure
Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...
. Conceived of at least as early as 1880, the term was used in 1881 by the economist Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth FBA was an Irish philosopher and political economist who made significant contributions to the methods of statistics during the 1880s...
to describe "an ideally perfect instrument, a psychophysical machine, continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual." More recently, it has been used to refer to a tool developed by Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth to gauge the valence
Valence (psychology)
Valence, as used in psychology, especially in discussing emotions, means the intrinsic attractiveness or aversiveness of an event, object, or situation. However, the term is also used to characterize and categorize specific emotions. For example, the emotions popularly referred to as "negative",...
of various corpora, including historical State of the Union
State Of The Union
"State Of The Union" is the debut single from British singer-songwriter David Ford. It had previously been featured as a demo on his official website, before appearing as a track on a CD entitled "Apology Demos EP," only on sale at live shows....
addresses, song lyrics, and online tweets
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and blogs.