The F-Word’s Hidden Superpower: Repeating It Can Increase Your Pain Threshold
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The F-word's hidden superpower: repeating it can increase your pain threshold:
There have been a surprising number of studies in recent years examining the effects of swearing, specifically whether it can help relieve pain-either physical or psychological (as in the case of traumatic memories or events). According to the latest such study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, constantly repeating the F-word-as one might do if one hit one's thumb with a hammer-can increase one's pain threshold.
The technical term is the "hypoalgesic effect of swearing," best illustrated by a 2009 study in NeuroReport by researchers at Keele University in the UK. The work was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, "for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain." Co-author Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele, became interested in studying the topic after noting his wife's "unsavory language" while giving birth, and wondered if profanity really could help alleviate pain. "Swearing is such a common response to pain. There has to be an underlying reason why we do it," Stephens told Scientific American at the time.
[...] The result: "Only the traditional swear word (the F-word) had any effect on pain outcomes," said Stephens. They also measured the subjects' pain threshold, asking them to indicate when the ice water began to feel painful. Those who chanted the F-word waited longer before indicating they felt pain-in other words, the swearing increased their threshold for pain.
Journal Reference
Stephens, Richard, Robertson, Olly. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel "Swear" Words, Frontiers in Psychology (DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00723)
Does it work as well in other languages? What about [non]-English-speaking people?
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