Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel “Swear” Words

Abstract

Previous research showing that swearing alleviates pain is extended by addressing emotion arousal and distraction as possible mechanisms. We assessed the effects of a conventional swear word ("fuck") and two new "swear" words identified as both emotion-arousing and distracting: "fouch" and "twizpipe." A mixed sex group of participants (N = 92) completed a repeated measures experimental design augmented by mediation analysis. The independent variable was repeating one of four different words: "fuck" vs. "fouch" vs. "twizpipe" vs. a neutral word. The dependent variables were emotion rating, humor rating, distraction rating, cold pressor pain threshold, cold pressor pain tolerance, pain perception score, and change from resting heart rate. Mediation analyses were conducted for emotion, humor, and distraction ratings. For conventional swearing ("fuck"), confirmatory analyses found a 32% increase in pain threshold and a 33% increase in pain tolerance, accompanied by increased ratings for emotion, humor, and distraction, relative to the neutral word condition. The new "swear" words, "fouch" and "twizpipe," were rated as more emotional and humorous than the neutral word but did not affect pain threshold or tolerance. Changes in heart rate and pain perception were absent. Our data replicate previous findings that repeating a swear word at a steady pace and volume benefits pain tolerance, extending this finding to pain threshold. Mediation analyses did not identify a pathway via which such effects manifest. Distraction appears to be of little importance but emotion arousal is worthy of future study.

An Exploratory Analysis of the Relation between Offensive Language and Mental Health

“…bad, hate, sick, suffer) in the posts of users showing signs of depression, where the discourse of users not showing any signs contains more sexual-related content, addressing our RQ2. These findings are consistent with the existing literature from psychology (Stephens and Robertson, 2020;Everaert et al, 2017;Beck and Haigh, 2014).…”

“…The use of offensive language could be an emotion regulation strategy through which depressed individuals relieve some of their distress. Similarly, pain and distress studies indicate that the use of offensive language when experiencing pain significantly diminishes the level of pain experienced (Stephens and Robertson, 2020), suggesting that the use of offensive language can relieve distress.…”

Effect of swearing on strength: Disinhibition as a potential mediator

“…This would theoretically lead to attention-mediated reduction in BIS activity and consequent disinhibition. Consistent with this suggestion, previous research has shown that swearing is rated as distracting (Stephens & Robertson, 2020). Henceforth, we refer to this as the “distraction pathway” for swearing-induced state disinhibition.…”

“…That most languages include swear words (van Lancker & Cummings, 1999) suggests they fulfil one or more useful functions and researchers have begun to evidence a variety of beneficial effects of swearing. Repeating a swear word has been found to alleviate the physical pain of immersing one’s hand in ice cold water (Robertson et al, 2017; Stephens et al, 2009; Stephens & Robertson, 2020; Stephens & Umland, 2011) and the social pain of being ostracised (Philipp & Lombardo, 2017). Swearing also augments persuasiveness (Scherer & Sagarin, 2006), credibility (Rassin & Heijden, 2005) and has been shown to benefit physical tasks that rely on strength and power (Stephens et al, 2018).…”

Frankly, we do give a damn: improving patient outcomes with swearing

“…There is evidence that a patient needs to use an actual swear word, not a made up or bad sounding word, to elicit the pain and physical performance improvements. Stephens et al [ 17 ] discovered that pain tolerance and pain threshold improved in subjects that repeated the F-word , but pain metrics did not improve when subjects repeated the made up swear words “fouch” or “twizpipe”.…”