The next time you burn yourself while cooking, catch that paper cut, or stub your toe, go ahead and let loose a few “colorful metaphors,” or utter your favorite expletive. Not only can it make you feel better but it may also help to alleviate your pain.
Researchers at Britain’s Keele University conducted a groundbreaking new study that suggests the use of profanity may act as a pain reliever. The analysis, performed on a small group of college students, found that swearing actually increased pain tolerance. The results of the study can be found in the journal NeuroReport.
According to Richard Stephens of Keele University in Staffordshire, U.K., swearing was also shown to increase the heart rate and decrease perceived pain that may help lessen actual pain. He said, “If people experience the emotion of fear to a significant degree, their pain tolerance increases.” He then explained, “There seems to be something similar here. Swearing is emotional language. If it’s not fear, it might be aggression.” As to how swearing differs from common language, Stephens said, “It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain.”
The idea for the analysis presented itself to Stephens when he experienced the miracle of childbirth with his wife, who unleashed a bit of unpleasant language during labor. This prompted Stephens to employ the help of his school of psychology colleagues, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, to set out to test whether or not swearing can actually diminish pain.
A total of 67 undergraduate students, consisting of 38 males and 29 females, participated in the experiment. During the study, each participant immersed a hand in cold water at a temperature of about 5º Celsius for as long as they could endure it. During performance of the frosty task, they repeated either a swear word of their choice or a neutral word. The students who were swearing during the exercise reported less pain and withstood the cold water for about 40 seconds longer, on average.
Among the popular choices for a swear word were the s-word, the f-word, two b-words and a c-word. Interestingly, although swearing had the positive effects of endurance and pain reduction for both sexes, women reported a greater decrease in perceived pain.
Although the issue of swearing remains one of heated public debate, scientists have now begun to question the idea that it is bad. Stephens explained, “Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it.” He then added, “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear.”
Stephens pointed out that further studies of different types of pain and various measures of effects are needed for researchers to fully understand the impact of swear words on pain. In addition, Stephens cautioned that the more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become. And without emotion, the swear word would become ineffective for pain relief.