Many of us try to suppress the urge to blurt out an expletive when something goes wrong. But the instinct may actually be useful: Research has found that using profanity can have beneficial effects on people’s stress, anxiety, and depression. In fact, there are numerous potential physical, psychological, and social perks related to the power of a well-timed F-bomb.
Here are the hidden health perks of swearing that science has uncovered.
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It can help you tolerate pain
Cursing induces what’s called hypoalgesia, or decreased sensitivity to pain. Researchers have shown that after uttering a curse word, people can keep their hands submerged in ice water for longer than if they say a more neutral word.
“Swearing is a readily accessible, low-cost means of self-help,” says Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in the U.K. and author of the book Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad. But here’s an interesting twist: “People who swear less often get more benefit from swearing when they need it,” he says. In other words, cursing all the time zaps the words of their potency.
You’ll work out harder
Swearing aloud is associated with improvements in exercise performance, including cycling power and hand-grip strength. A study in a 2022 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology even found that when people repeated a swear word while doing chair push-ups, they reported feeling more self-confidence.
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Swearing seems to help people shed their social inhibitions, according to Stephens, one of the study’s authors. “When we’re disinhibited, we’re no longer as worried about negative social evaluation,” which in turn leads to greater confidence, he explains.
It can help you regulate emotions
A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that when people wrote about a time they felt socially excluded, then repeated a swear word for two minutes, their hurt feelings and social distress were significantly lower than for people who used a neutral word. In another study, researchers found that when drivers cursed after being refused the right of way by another driver, or when they encountered a traffic jam caused by cars that were stopped illegally, cursing helped them tamp down their anger and return to a more balanced emotional state.
“Swearing allows us to vent and cope with emotions such as anger and frustration,” says Timothy Jay, a professor of psychology emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and author of the books Why We Curse and Cursing in America.
It can make people feel closer
“I think of swear words as being like a box of tools,” Jay says. ”We can use them in different ways in different situations for personal or social gain.”
There appear to be surprising social benefits associated with the well-timed use of profanity. “Some people believe that profanity can break social taboos in a generally non-harmful way, [which] can create an informal environment in which people feel like insiders together,” says Ben Bergen, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, and author of the book What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves. “Similarly, swearing can lead others to believe that the person speaking is honest because they’re saying what they really believe.”
As evidence, consider this: A series of studies published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found a positive relationship between the use of profanity and honesty, based on how and when people cursed in their everyday lives; the researchers concluded that “profanity was associated with less lying and deception” and a greater sense of integrity. In another series of studies in the journal Psychology, Crime & Law, researchers found that the use of swear words in (fictitious) legal testimony made the testimony seem more credible to participants than when the same testimony was free of profanity.
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In the right context, swearing has been found to bolster social connections. In a study involving workers in a soap factory in New Zealand, researchers recorded their daily interactions and concluded that when the F-word was used on the factory floor to express a complaint or objection, it seemed to engender more communal feelings among workers.
Of course, it is possible to overdo it. People who swear frequently are sometimes perceived as angry, hostile, or aggressive, so there’s a potential tipping point to using profanity.
It’s also important to know your audience. “Observing how others use language is usually a good first step in a new environment,” Bergen says. “It’s not just whether people are using profanity or not—it’s how they’re using it and what specific words or kinds of words they’re using. Is this the kind of situation where mild swears seem generally used? Do people seem to react positively to people using language that way? Is everyone using profanity or just particular people?”
Swearing etiquette may depend on the social hierarchy and power dynamics in certain situations, such as the workplace, says Jay. Just because the boss uses curse words doesn’t necessarily mean you can get away with it. (You’ll also want to modify your language around young children.) Being attentive to nuances in how curse words are used in different settings can guide you toward a more productive relationship with profanity.
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