The F-word’s hidden superpower: Repeating it can increase your pain threshold

Enlarge / Got pain? Go ahead and swear a little, science says. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

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.

For that 2009 study, Stephens and his colleagues asked 67 study participants (college students) to immerse their hands in a bucket of ice water. They were then instructed to either swear repeatedly using the profanity of their choice or chant a neutral word. Lo and behold, the participants said they experienced less pain when they swore and were also able to leave their hands in the bucket about 40 seconds longer than when they weren't swearing. It has been suggested (by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, among others) that it is a primitive reflex that serves as a form of catharsis.

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