What the f*ck is going on in our brains?
Disclaimer: All uses of profanity are for stylistic purposes. I apologize for the disturbance it might cause, though the intended effect is more on the humorous side.
We are going to talk about swear words. But to set the scene and get the juices flowing, let’s first hear from Guru Osho about what he puts as one of the most interesting words in the English language today, a magical word: fuck.
Good for your health, says Guru Osho. Then why the fuck is swearing deemed so disgraceful?
Dr. Richard Stephens, a Psychology professor at Keele University in the UK, is a big fan of swearing. He doesn’t buy the anecdotal theories about how bad swearing is for oneself. And what do scientists do when they think a hypothesis is wrong? They test it. So did Stephens and his colleagues. They conducted a study in 2009 to test the anecdotal hypothesis that deems swearing as “a maladaptive response in which negative and unhelpful thoughts and ideas are brought to bear when pain is experienced.” And their findings were remarkable. The anecdotal theory which all parents would be willing to agree turned out to be wrong. They reported that “swearing increases pain tolerance and decreases perceived pain compared with not swearing!” So, swearing is good!
Here’s a little sneak peak of the experiment in case you need some *scientific* proof when defending it against non-swearers:
They took 67 undergraduate students and told them that “the study was concerned with quantifying the degree of stress that various forms of language elicit during tense situations.” Never trust psychologists. They don’t want to inform you fully and poison the well. But it’s fine, these are all white lies, told for the sake of science. They don’t hurt people as much as their 20th century counterparts anymore. But you don’t need to get into this in your defense of swearing. We love psychologists. They are good people.
Back to the experiment. Each participant went to the lab individually. In the lab, there were two water containers waiting for them, one cold and one room temperature. Before asking the participants to submerge their hands in water, the researchers asked them for ‘five words they might use after hitting themselves on the thumb with a hammer.’ Of course, almost everyone had a swear word on their list. And as a control, they asked for ‘five words to describe a table.’ The first swear word on the first list and the corresponding table adjective on the second were the designated words that the participants were asked to repeat when they submerged their non-dominant hand in ice-cold water. In order to make sure everyone experienced the same level of coldness, the participants were first asked to submerge their hand in room temperature water, then to the cold one.
The researchers measured a couple things, but knowing two of them will be enough for you in your defense of swearing: cold-pressor latency and perceived pain; meaning, for how long they can keep their hand in ice-cold water, and well, how much pain they feel.
The results were stunning. Or if you want to keep it serious, the results were *statistically* significant. Yeah! The participants were able to keep their hands in ice-cold water for longer when they repeatedly said “fuckfuckfuckfuck,” compared to saying “flatflatflatflat.” And they reported that they felt less pain when they swore versus when they didn’t. A magical word, said Guru Osho — he was right! Ehm — scientifically speaking.
So, now that we’ve seen that swearing makes you physically stronger (okay, this might be a bit of a stretch, but being the prudent reader you are, you know what I mean — plus, you’re presented with all the sources and data, so you know.) — okay this was a long parentheses… I was saying, now that we’ve seen the relieving effect of swearing for physical pain, let’s take it one step further, let’s talk about social pain this time, and see what does science have to say about swearing and social pain.
We fly from the UK to all the way to the south, to Australia and New Zealand this time. Two psychologists from Massey University and University of Queensland, Dr. Michael Philipp and Laura Lombardo, inspired by the work of our good old friend Dr. Stephens and his colleagues, conducted a study in 2017 to test if swearing alleviates social pain. And… they reported “that social and physical pain are functionally similar and that swearing attenuates social pain.”
*Milestone alert*
For what it’s worth, the researchers specified that “this research provides the first experimental evidence of swearing’s effectiveness for alleviating psychological consequences of social distress.” So, I thought we shall recognize their inventiveness.
If you’re wondering how they caused social distress in a controlled lab environment, I can assure you that you are not alone. But science never ceases to amaze us. Being the smart people they are, the researchers exploited an earlier finding of an earlier study (ah, science!) which reported that people can “readily re-experience the pain associated with a social distress from their past.” They experimentally manipulated the feelings of social distress by asking the participants to perform an autobiographical writing task. Duh. I don’t know why I found myself wondering how they could possibly insult the participants or cause social distress in some other way right there in the lab and then ask them to swear back at them and measure if swearing reduced the social pain the experimenters caused on the participants… If this wasn’t your thought process, good for you.
Ehm — the experiment. The study was a little more involved than what is relevant to our discussion right now. So, I’ll briefly explain the whole process but we’ll mainly focus on the fun part. Just like the physical pain experiment, the first thing in the experiment was to ask the participants for “ five words they might use if they hit their hand with a hammer and five words that describe a chair (not a table this time).” From the word lists they generated, the first single syllable (single-syllable so that it’s not too cumbersome to repeat) swear word on the first list was selected as the participant’s swear word — as you can predict, the most common ones were “shit” and “fuck.” And the first single-syllable non-swear word on the second list was selected as the non-swear word — the most common ones were “flat” and “hard.”
Then, participants were asked to perform “an autobiographical writing task,” that is to say, they were asked to write about a memory from the past. There were two conditions for the content of their write-ups. One group was asked to write about “a time when they felt included or accepted (included condition), the other group was asked to write about a time when they felt excluded or rejected (excluded condition).” Since our main focus is the relation between social pain and swearing, there is no need to get into the details of the comparisons included vs. excluded conditions. Obviously, social distress occurs only in the excluded condition, so let’s stick with that one and see how swearing interacts with it.
Right after they wrote about their memory, they were asked to repeatedly swore out loud for two minutes. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck… only slightly different than our mantra, remember? An act of “transcendental meditation…” Then, the participants were asked to report on how they were feeling. While repeatedly swearing out loud, the participants submerged their non-dominant hand in a container with room temperature water. That really didn’t have to do anything with measuring the effect of social distress and swearing. It was just to confuse the participants so that they don’t understand what the intention of the study is. Okay, okay… White lies, or not even lies but weird obfuscations for the sake of science… Well, the room temperature water procedure had nothing to do with the first part of the experiment which is about the social pain — but it very well served as a smooth transition to the second part of the experiment. The researchers conducting this study also measured the interaction between swearing and physical pain with the cold water method just like Dr. Stephens and his friends. But there is no need to repeat that part of their findings, because we already know that swearing increases physical pain tolerance. Look at us!
Thanks to Dr. Philipp and Lombardo, now we also know that swearing helps coping with social distress as well. They found that “swearing attenuated social pain in the excluded condition.” Participants who repeated swear words reported less social distress than those who reported neutral words. That is to say, “fuck” was more helpful than “flat.”
Well… I guess it is my responsibility now to make sure to transfer the message of the researchers to its fullest extent and not fake-frame scientific findings for entertainment purposes. So… although all the findings about the attenuating effect of swearing for both physical and social pain are valid, it is important to emphasize the “intra-personal” dimension of the findings. That is to say, swearing will have a cathartic effect when you are alone, trying to cope with a physical and social pain on your own. You swear out loud and nobody hears it, you’re good. However, when people are around and the possibility of being judged is present, the social outcomes of swearing might outdo the relieving effect of swearing and end up causing more pain overall. But as long as we keep it intra-personal — we’re good.
So, on an intra-personal level, swearing has a magical relieving effect. Okay, but what is so special about these words?
Another group of scientists again from the University of Queensland in Australia found neurobiological evidence that swear words behave differently than other words as a result of a study whose scope goes beyond our discussion here. Yet, it’s good to know that swear words as a part of the taboo language constitute a unique set of words.
But again, what is so special about these words? What is it about them that create this effect? Does it have to be about sex or shit? Can other words bear such power?
Our good old friend Dr. Richard Stephens asked the same questions and conducted another study in 2020 to assess if novel “swear” words can have a pain-relieving effect like that of the conventional swear words. There is no need to go into the details of the study, you’ve been reading this for so long. But here’s what they found: “For conventional swearing (‘fuck’), confirmatory analyses found a 32% increase in pain threshold and a 33% increase in pain tolerance, accompanied by increased ratings for emotion, humor, and distraction, relative to the neutral word condition. The new ‘swear’ words, ‘fouch’ and ‘twizpipe,’ were rated as more emotional and humorous than the neutral word but did not affect pain threshold or tolerance.”
So… the answer was… no.
Well, okay, it’s obvious as of now that we all respect the scientific method and all… But sir, speaking from my personal experience, I know for a fact that novel “swear” words do have a cathartic effect. If you wonder how, let me tell you my not-much-scientific-yet-truly-authentic proof that, in my opinion, proves wrong the conclusion Dr. Stephens drew about the effect of novel swear words.
It all started with a Turkish absurd comedy show streaming on TRT (the government TV channel): Leyla ile Mecnun. It’s a masterpiece that tackles the issues of everyday life in the most absurdly humorous way possible. Alongside the countless hilarious characteristics of the show, their inventive swear words were among my personal favorites.
Of course they weren’t using the conventional swear words on the national TV channel. Instead, they were inventing their own conventions. Here’s a short video clip named “Leyla ile Mecnun — Modern Swear Words” through which you can have a sense of the energy of the show, and enjoy the moments of phenomenal humor if you happen to know Turkish by any chance.
Okay, okay, okay… of course I don’t expect you to understand Turkish. So, here are some of the conventional “swear” words of Leyla ile Mecnun:
1) Damacana (pronounced as something like: Dahm- uh- john- uh)
It’s a 19 L (around 5 gallons) water container. Drinking tap water isn’t quite common in Turkish cities. Instead, people would order damacanas of water, and watermen would carry them to homes. You can go to 0:24 in the video clip to hear it in context if you like.
2) Tuvalet Terliği (too- vah- let — tar-lee-e)
People do not wear shoes inside their homes. Instead, they would use slippers that they only wear at home, and there would be separate slippers in the bathrooms so that the dirt and wetness of the bathroom doesn’t spread to the rest of the home floor. It’s generally an unpleasant experience because somehow, the toilet slippers manage to stay wet 24/7, making your socks wet whenever you wear them. To see how Mecnun (the main character) uses this very powerful swear word, and how people react to it, go to 2:40 in the clip . If you keep on watching, you’ll see him further describing the specifics of the slippers. Sarı olan — the yellow one...! Plastik — plastic…! Bi’ tarafı kopmuştur hani — one side of it is torn…! Ayak dışarı çıkar — the foot sticks out…! Basamazsın yahu — and you can’t step on it…! Yani giyemezsin de ayağını sürürsün üstüne basarak — so you can’t wear it and you drag your feet stepping on it…! İşte o pisssss — that dirrrrrty…! Tuvalet terrrliği — toilet slippppperrrrsss…!
Powerful, ha?
These are only two examples of many original “novel” swear words of Leyla ile Mecnun. My brother (17) and I (21), as fanatics of this TV show who memorized a good deal of scenes, love to swear at each other with these words. We don’t use the conventional swear words at home. Only these. (Almost). And honestly, I can wholeheartedly say that swearing at my brother with these words gives an extremely cathartic feeling. If I’m being honest, combining the real swear words with these novel swear words, like amk damacanası, (something along the lines of fucking damacana) is the ultimate catharsis; but for sure, there is more to these novel swear words than what Dr. Stephens found. I mean — in my humble opinion.
The divergence between the novel swear words in the experiment Dr. Stephens conducted and the way my brother and I use the original swear words of Leyla ile Mecnun could be that while the experimental novel words were fully novel to the participants, my brother and I were primed to acquire the social context of these words used as swear words by watching hours and hours of Leyla ile Mecnun. So, maybe with enough priming, once-neutral words can behave like swear words too. But it is yet to be scientifically proven. Maybe I should email Dr. Stephens and propose my priming/familiarization hypothesis inspired by my beloved absurd comedy show.
But until then, the questions remain… Can non-taboo words become swear words? How is it that a single consonant can make such a big difference? What the fuck is going on in our brains? I don’t know. But our linguistic brain is f*cking fascinating, that I know.
Repeated disclaimer: Once again, I would like to highlight the stylistic purposes of all profanity above and apologize for any disturbance it might have caused. Also, since this is up on the internet now, I feel a need to state that this is for class, people. Cognitive Science of Language.
A list of references in the order of appearance:
Stephens, R., Atkins, J., & Kingston, A. (2009). Swearing as a response to pain. Neuroreport, 20, 1056–1060. http://doi:10.1097/WNR.0b013e32832e64b1.
Philipp, M. C., & Lombardo, L. (2017). Hurt feelings and four letter Words: Swearing alleviates the pain of social distress. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47(4), 517–523. http://doi:10.1002/ejsp.2264.
Hansen, S. J., McMahon, K. L., & De Zubicaray, G. I. (2019). The neurobiology of taboo language processing: Fmri evidence during spoken word production. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14(3), 271–279. http://doi:10.1093/scan/nsz009.
Stephens R. and Robertson O. (2020) Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel “Swear” Words. Front. Psychol. 11:723. http://doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00723.
