In news that will perhaps surprise no one, researchers have found New Zealanders were more likely to be 'unhappy' in 2020 than in previous years.
Using data from the Gross National Happiness Index - a measure of how Kiwis are feeling, based on what they're tweeting - a new study looked into what impact the pandemic had on our moods.
"The results show that New Zealand seems to have two regimes, an unhappy and happy regime," the authors wrote.
"In 2019 the happy regime dominated; thus, the probability of being unhappy in the next time period (day) occurred less frequently, whereas the opposite is true for 2020."
Usually, the switch in mood correlated with events related to the pandemic - happiness dropping most precipitously in March, when the virus began to spread in the community and the Government ordered a total lockdown.
It quickly bounced back after we successfully eliminated the first outbreak, but slipped again when Auckland went back into lockdown in August.
The other two notable falls in happiness occurred during the January bushfires in Australia - which turned the skies over New Zealand a portentous orange - and their first coronavirus case later that month.
"From these results, it is clear that considering the evolution of being unhappy over time, the unhappy state was dominant in 2020," the study, published in journal PLOS One, found.
After the August outbreak was quashed, Kiwis got significantly happier - the researchers linking the renewed happiness to generous support payments and the ability to travel.
Lead author Stephanie Rossouw, an economist at AUT, said to keep happiness high, the Government should "intervene by not imposing any other unjustified lockdowns" and "open the borders to allow international travel" to low-risk countries without increasing the COVID-19 risk".
"Failure to increase happiness levels could have further negative spill-over effects in various economic, social, and political domains."
