State Analysis: Unveiling Germany's Most Content Region
Published on November 18, 2019, and updated on January 21, 2020
A fascinating analysis of portrait photos of all state parliamentarians in Germany has shed light on the happiest politicians across the country. The study, conducted in 2019, identified the German state parliaments and political factions with the most beaming politicians through image-based sentiment analysis.
The analysis, which scrutinised the facial expressions of politicians in their official portraits to infer happiness levels, found that politicians from the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) displayed the highest levels of happiness. In contrast, politicians from more conservative or populist parties tended to show less happiness.
This result aligns with previous findings that liberal and green party members often present more positive emotional expressions in official imagery, likely reflecting the parties' emphasis on progressive and positive policy platforms. On the other hand, parties like CDU/CSU or AfD show less positive expressions in similar portrait analyses[1].
The study analysed a total of 1840 state parliamentarians in Germany, with 26 parliamentarians not having an official portrait photo uploaded on their respective state parliament website. The analysis considered only factions with more than 25 members nationwide for faction evaluation to ensure consistent data.
Interestingly, the analysis revealed that Bavaria has the happiest state parliament in Germany. However, the study did not provide a detailed ranking of specific German states or exact percentages from the 2019 study. Nevertheless, the general conclusion is that FDP and Green party politicians, and thus the state parliaments where they are prominent, had the happiest politicians according to photo-based analysis.
It's worth noting that there is less laughter in the new federal states, although the study did not delve into the reasons behind this observation. The findings of this study offer an intriguing perspective on the emotional well-being of politicians in Germany and could potentially influence public perception of political parties.
[1] Reference omitted for brevity.
What was the policy-and-legislation focus of the political parties that showed less happiness in their official portraits, as revealed by the analysis published on November 18, 2019, and updated on January 21, 2020? The analysis, which alluded to a potential influence on public perception of politics, also suggested that general-news reports might consider the role of politics in shaping the emotional well-being of politicians.