According to a new study, certain vibes posted on Facebook status updates are more viral than the other.

For the study, researchers collected anonymized status updates from the 100 most populated cities in the U.S. between 2009 and early 2012. The data was put through a software program called the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, a generally reliable auditor of basic feelings.

Rainy days seemed to have an significantly large emotional ripple effect on the social network. “If it rains in New York, people around the country become miserable,” says study co-author Nicholas Christakis, professor of sociology and medicine at Yale University. Rain was found to have increased the number of negative posts by 1.16%, and decreased the number of positive posts by 1.19%.

Weirdly enough, it wasn’t the negative posts that carried the most viral ability: Each positive post yielded an additional 1.75 positive posts, whereas negative posts only spread an additional 1.29.

The nature of the spread could help create “clusters of happy and unhappy individuals” with greater positive or negative agency. “ This could also explain why real news won't get as many hits, and "fluff pieces" that would otherwise been completely overlooked are super popular on Facebook.

[PLoS One]