Montclair researchers: Valentine’s Day is all about love…of materialism

According to the study, the commercialism of the holiday could have significant psychological effects on individuals consuming online discourse related to Valentine’s Day.

Bob Doda

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Feb 14, 2023, 10:24 PM

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Updated 629 days ago

A new study says the commercialization of Valentine’s Day is more prevalent than ever - less about romance and more about gifts and shopping.

Those were the findings from Montclair State University researchers who analyzed “more than 80,000 posts using “#Valentinesday” and “#Valentinesday2023” on various social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram over a month” leading up to the holiday.

Some of the key takeaways:

Analysis of social media data using “Valentine’s Day” as a keyword shows the most associated term was “shop,” with “shop” and “gift” identified 131.17% more frequently than the term “love.”

The most recent estimates of the National Retail Federation suggests that the holiday now accounts for over $23 billion in purchases in the U.S.

A word cloud generated to show term use frequency in the studied data set further reveals the extent to which commercial and advertising messages are embedded in social media messaging about Valentine’s Day.

Courtesy: Montclair State University

According to the study, the commercialism of the holiday could have significant psychological effects on individuals consuming online discourse related to Valentine’s Day.

Read more about the study at the Montclair State website.

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