Rating Offensive Words in Three Television Program Contexts

Abstract

Renewed attention to the use of expletives on television has been spurred by several recent high-profile on-air incidents. This study investigates which words television viewers find most offensive in varying contexts: broadcast TV, cable, and premium channels. Results show significant differences in perceived offensiveness of words depending on the context in which words are heard. Male and female respondents, liberals and conservatives, and à In memory of Barry Sapolsky. Our sharp-witted friend and academic guru.

Media violence and judgments of offensiveness: A quantitative and qualitative analysis.

“…Several studies also suggest that religiosity may influence feelings of offense. Sapolsky et al (2010) found that those who regularly attended church were more offended by indecent language than those who did not attend church or attended church less regularly. Additionally, religious individuals were also more offended viewing advertisements of certain products (Christy & Haley, 2008).…”

“…The first aim of the study is to examine the extent to which viewers are offended by violence in the media, specifically examining how person factors relate to feelings of offense, such as gender, religiosity, and amount of violent media consumption. Based on previous research, we predict that women will be more offended by media violence (as a whole) compared with men (ASA, 2002), that religiosity would be positively correlated with feelings of offensiveness (Sapolsky et al, 2010), and that greater preference and reported viewing of media violence will be correlated with less offense.…”

F*c*book: Swearing impacts impression formation on social media

“…Specific content can differentially impact impressions formed depending on the gender of the profile owner (Walther, et al, 2009). The use of swear words on social media provides an interesting extension to this research due to the context specific nature of arousal they elicit (Johnson and Lewis, 2010) and differences in their use and appraisal by men and women (Sapolsky, Shafer, and Kaye, 2011;Wang et al, 2014). The current study investigated the influence of swearing on social media on impressions formed of profile owners' on measures of attractiveness, professionalism, and credibility.…”

“…Stronger swear words are associated with masculinity and milder swear words with femininity (Rasmussen and Moely, 1986). In addition to gender differences in the use of swear words, women have been found to rate the swear words used on the television as significantly more offensive (Sapolsky et al, 2011) suggesting there may be an interaction between gender and impression formation when the use of swear words is manipulated.…”

“…The current study aimed to examine the effects of swearing on impression formation in the specific context of Facebook. Considering previous findings of gender differences in perceptions of swearing (Sapolsky et al, 2011), and on interpretation of Facebook timeline content in relation to impression formation (Walther et al, 2009), we also manipulated target (timeline owner) gender and measured participant gender. Participants viewed four manufactured Facebook timelines: a male and female each containing swearing or no swearing, and rated the timeline owners on dimensions of perceived attractiveness (social-, physical-, and task-attractiveness), perceived employability (intelligence, competence, and employability) and credibility (trustworthiness, honesty, and approachability).…”