William Atkins
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 18:48
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 2
U.K. psychologists discovered through their scientific study that the use of offensive language, or cursing, helps to withstand the perception of pain. No, “darn it” is not offensive enough to stop the pain!
Psychological researchers from Keele University in the United Kingdom conducted the study on pain and the use of offensive language.
The researchers are Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston. Their paper “
Swearing as a response to pain,” is published in the journal
NeuroReport.
The abstract to the paper states,
“Although a common pain response, whether swearing alters individuals’ experience of pain has not been investigated. This study investigated whether swearing affects cold-pressor pain tolerance (the ability to withstand immersing the hand in icy water), pain perception and heart rate.”
They asked sixty undergraduate students to place their hands in ice water.
The first time, they repeated a curse word repeatedly as a response to the pain of the icy water. The second time, they repeated a non-offensive word.
They group conducted the experiment in this manner,
“In a repeated measures design, pain outcomes were assessed in participants asked to repeat a swear word versus a neutral word. In addition, sex differences and the roles of pain catastrophising, fear of pain and trait anxiety were explored.” [Abstract]
They found that the students were able to withstand the pain of feeling icy water much more when they said the curse words. The students also reported less pain when using curse words versus regular words.
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