WHY SWEARING IS GOOD FOR YOU ! CHIMPS DO IT TOO

Swearing is regarded simply as an abusive language. But as Emma Byrne shows in her book, Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language, new research reveals that profanity has many positive virtues, from promoting trust and teamwork in the office to increasing our tolerance to pain.

Living in a pandemic has given us all cause to express our frustrations, whether from the ongoing confusing restrictions to the fear of what may happen if you contract the coronavirus.

But used appropriately and responsibly, it turns out that sporadic outbursts of cursing, cussing, swearing — whatever the heck you may call it — are a good way to process the chaos of being human in a world where much isn’t under our control.

“Swearing can have a truly liberating effect when we’re feeling bottled up with frustration. Saying the F-word, or similar, can have an immediate calming impact on the difficult emotions we might be experiencing,” Dr. Raffaello Antonino, a counseling psychologist and the clinical director and founder of Therapy Central.

1- Swearing might be a sign of intelligence :

Participants were asked to list as many words that start with F, A or S in one minute. Another minute was devoted to coming up with curse words that start with those three letters. The study found those who came up with the most F, A and S words also produced the most swear words.

That's a sign of intelligence "to the degree that language is correlated with intelligence," said Jay, who authored the study. "People that are good at language are good at generating a swearing vocabulary."

Swearing can also be associated with social intelligence, Jay added.

"Having the strategies to know where and when it's appropriate to swear, and when it's not," Jay said, "is a social cognitive skill like picking the right clothes for the right occasion. That's a pretty sophisticated social tool."

2 - Swearing is a sign of honesty sometimes :

Science has also found a positive link between profanity and honesty. People who cursed lied less on an interpersonal level, and had higher levels of integrity overall, a series of three studies published in 2017 found.

"When you're honestly expressing your emotions with powerful words, then you're going to come across as more honest," said Jay, who was not involved in the studies.

While a higher rate of profanity use was associated with more honesty, the study authors cautioned that "the findings should not be interpreted to mean that the more a person uses profanity, the less likely he or she would engage in more serious unethical or immoral behaviors."

3- Swearing helps with pain :

Multiple studies have proved that swearing can increase our pain tolerance. This study suggests that people who put their hands in ice-cold water and used these words were able to feel less pain and keep their hands in the water longer than people who didn’t use profanity. While this study suggests that people on bikes who had to pedal against resistance had more power and strength when they cussed than people who only used neutral words.

4- Swearing is a sign of creativity :

Swearing appears to be centered in the right side of the brain, the part people often call the "creative brain."

Research on swearing dates back to Victorian times, when physicians discovered that patients who lost their ability to speak could still curse.

"They swore incredibly fluently," Byrne said. "Childhood reprimands, swear words and terms of endearment -- words with strong emotional content learned early on tend to be preserved in the brain even when all the rest of our language is lost."