By Nick Mcdermott PUBLISHED: 16:17 EST, 20 March 2013 | UPDATED: 04:38 EST, 21 March 2013 It is enough to make Bridget Jones break down and weep. While she wears her heart on her sleeve, it seems she is in a minority in modern fiction. New British books show significantly less emotion than they did a century ago, academics say. Hankies at the ready! British books published before the 1960s were far more emotional than their American counterparts Academics analysed how frequently ‘mood’ words - those reflecting anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise - were used in more than five million books published between 1900 to 2000.
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There were two happy peaks where greater ‘joy’ words were used in books - those published after the First World War and in the 1960s
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Researchers found a sad peak corresponding to the Second World War
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Since the 1960s there has been a divergence in style, with American books becoming decidedly more emotional
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‘In the USA, baby boomers grew up in the greatest period of economic prosperity of the century, whereas the @placeholder baby boomers grew up in a post-war recovery period so perhaps ‘emotionalism’ was a luxury of economic growth.’