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Swearing Relieves Pain

A study published in NeuroReport measured how long students could keep their hands in cold water. During the exercise, they could repeat an expletive or a neutral word. When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and on average endured 40 seconds longer. "Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it," says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University, who led the study. "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear," he adds.

Earlier studies have shown that unlike normal language, which relies on the outer few millimeters in the left hemisphere of the brain, expletives hinge on evolutionarily ancient structures buried deep inside the right half. One such structure is the amygdala, an almond-shaped group of neurons that can trigger a fight-or-flight response in which our heart rate climbs and we become less sensitive to pain. Indeed, the students' heart rates rose when they swore, a fact the researchers say suggests that the amygdala was activated.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-swear
Filed under: Language Profanity Psychology Science Swearing
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