Cuss words are good for the pain

William Atkins
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 17:48

Science - Biology

They found that, “Swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing. However, swearing did not increase pain tolerance in males with a tendency to catastrophise [that is, the irrational thought process involving the belief that something is far worse than it actually is]."

And, "The observed pain-lessening (hypoalgesic) effect may occur because swearing induces a fight-or-flight response and nullifies the link between fear of pain and pain perception.” [Abstract]

According to the WebMD article Go Ahead and Curse! It May Ease Your Pain, one of the authors of the study, Dr. Richard Stephens, stated, “Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon. 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. Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists."

The researchers do not know the exact association between why curse words help to lessen pain perception.

However, they think that offensive words cause the heart to beat faster and cause negative emotions in the person yelling the curse words.

That is, they have more emotion to help alleviate some of the feelings of pain.