Linguistics Blog: Swearing

Henry Quillin
Mr. Roddy
IHSS
9 September 2019
Swearing is something that we all do, whether we do it on purpose or it accidentally slips out from time to time. We have always been told by parents and teachers that we shouldn't curse,  but there are studies that show that swearing might have some interesting benefits.
There are many uses of swear words. Cursing grabs attention and shows that you are passionate or serious about something, similar to highlighting a word. It also may help get your idea or message across more clearly and effectively, causing the listener to pay more attention. Lastly, we all know that cursing can help blow off steam, convey anger, and show other emotions.
Surprisingly, studies have shown that cursing has a wide variety of benefits. In a recent study,  participants’s profanity use was recorded and researchers asked a series of questions while they were hooked up to a lie detector. The results showed a positive relationship between those who cursed and their honesty levels, so apparently if you curse more you might be more truthful. (9) Researchers have also shown that cursing can increase your pain tolerance. There are  natural, pain-relieving chemicals that have a similar soothing effect to drugs like morphine that are released when you swear, researchers hypothesize. Letting out some profanities can also help you finish that last mile or rep. In 2017, cursing was shown to help with exercising. Participants were studied when doing exercises like cycling and weight lifting and told to either say curse words or neutral words. The results showed that in both cases swearing improved the performance of the participant.
While cursing is definitely not a good habit, I thought this was pretty interesting.

Holmes, Lindsay. “People Who Swear May Be Happier, Healthier And More Honest.” HuffPost,
     HuffPost, 14 Feb. 2018,

Schmid, Monika. “Swearing: Attempts to Ban It Are a Waste of Time – Wherever There Is
     Language, People Cuss.” The Conversation, 15 Aug. 2019,

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