Imagine: you are walking calmly through your house, and then bang — you hit your little finger on the bedside table! All sorts of indecent expressions, pronounced with maximum volume, are asking for themselves on the tongue. However, well—mannered people do not allow themselves to do this - they make faces, grimace, groan, but do not utter a single dirty word. And in vain: scientists have proven that obscene swearing has a literally analgesic effect. Such a strange property of the human psyche is called R. Stephens, O. Robertson. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel “Swear” Words / Frontiers in Psychology "the hypoalgesic effect of swearing".
Scientists from Keele University in Staffordshire, England, conducted Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief / Scientific American such an experiment. They forced the subjects (naturally, volunteers from among the students) to keep their hands in icy water until the pain became unbearable. At the same time, one subject was allowed to use only neutral words or soft euphemisms like "Damn!" (in the original fouch), replacing real swear words. Others were allowed to swear as much as they liked. As a result, the subjects who cursed with all their might managed to endure pain almost twice as long as their more restrained comrades.
The effect, discovered back in 2009, has since been confirmed R. Stephens, O. Robertson. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel “Swear” Words / Frontiers in Psychology other experiments, but it is still not particularly clear how it works. There is an assumption Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief / Scientific American that swearing increases aggression, which possibly affects the amygdala of the brain and triggers a "hit or run" reaction. At the same time, more adrenaline is released into the blood, which suppresses pain.
It is also established that dirty swearing helps to cope not only with physical, but also mental pain. Researchers from Massey University in New Zealand found M. C. Philipp, L. Lombardo. Hurt feelings and four letter words: Swearing alleviates the pain of social distress / European Journal of Social Psychology that people tend to view emotionally traumatic memories as less painful when they swear hard.
If it hurts you — no matter physically or mentally — swear without hesitation, and it will become much easier.
The main thing is not to get too carried away. Research by the same University of Kiel also demonstrated R. Stephens, C. Umland. Swearing as a Response to Pain — Effect of Daily Swearing Frequency / The Journal of Pain that people who swear very often (do not swear, but speak it) are less susceptible to the analgesic effect of swearing.
So it is better to monitor the purity of speech in everyday life and use obscene language only when it is really necessary to alleviate suffering.
