Is Swearing Good for Your Brain? | Otherwords

Summary

This script explores the complex role of swearing in society, challenging its negative connotations and highlighting its historical and psychological significance. It discusses how swearing can serve as a pain management mechanism, build trust in social groups, and act as an emotional outlet. The script also touches on the evolution of taboos in language, shifting from religious to secular themes, and the importance of shared understanding of these words to signal genuine emotions or intensify a situation.

Takeaways

• 😅 Swearing has been historically associated with lower social classes, but is now common among the rich and powerful.
• 🗣️ Language authorities often ignore swear words, making their origins difficult to trace.
• 🤔 The use of swear words in moderation may have psychological benefits.
• 🧠 Swearing is more closely tied to the emotional right side of the brain rather than the logical left side.
• 🔥 Non-propositional swearing, or involuntary outbursts, can act as a pain management mechanism.
• 🤝 Swearing can help build trust and strengthen social bonds within groups.
• 😡 Swearing can serve as an outlet for aggression, potentially reducing physical violence.
• 📚 Historically, swearing was believed to have real power, often invoking religious themes.
• 🌍 Cultural differences influence what is considered a taboo or offensive swear word.
• ⚖️ Overuse of swear words can diminish their impact, similar to how overuse of medication can lead to resistance.

Q & A

What is the historical association of swearing with social class?

For a long time, swearing was associated only with poor or low-class people, and the word 'vulgar' originally meant common.

How has the portrayal of swearing in media changed, as exemplified by the show 'Succession'?

In contrast to the past, the show 'Succession' demonstrates that today, even the rich and powerful use profanity, indicating a shift in the social perception of swearing.

Why have dictionaries and etymologies historically ignored swear words?

Dictionaries and etymologies have ignored swear words for hundreds of years, making it difficult to trace their origins, as they are often scrubbed from acceptable vocabulary.

What is non-propositional swearing and why do people do it?

Non-propositional swearing refers to unplanned, almost involuntary outbursts, such as when stepping on a Lego or receiving bad news. It's a reflexive urge that psychologists once discouraged but is now understood to have psychological benefits.

What did Dr. Richard Stephens' experiment reveal about the effects of swearing on pain tolerance?

Dr. Richard Stephens' experiment showed that swearing increased the average amount of time participants could withstand pain by 50%, suggesting that swearing acts as a pain management mechanism.

How does the brain's hemispheres play a role in swearing?

Swearing relies more on the right side of the brain, which is associated with emotion and creativity, unlike most language functions that reside in the left hemisphere.

What is the connection between swearing and building trust among groups?

Studies show that groups that swear conversationally tend to forge stronger bonds and perform better at shared tasks, as swearing is seen as a genuine display of emotion.

How can swearing serve as an outlet for aggression?

Swearing can minimize the potential for violence by offering an outlet for aggression, allowing people to express their feelings with words instead of physical violence.

What is the historical belief about the power of bad words?

Historically, bad words were considered taboo because people believed they had power, often invoking God's name or sacred things, which were thought to have real effects in the world.

How have cultural taboos around swearing evolved over time?

As culture became more secular, taboos shifted from religion to things like sex, excrement, and body parts. However, the specifics of what is considered taboo vary by culture, as seen in Germany and Japan.

What is the significance of shared taboos in swearing?

Shared taboos in swearing are significant because they allow a community to recognize when a situation is serious or intense, as the use of taboo words is reserved for such contexts.

Outlines

00:00

🗣️ The Evolution and Benefits of Swearing

This paragraph explores the historical perception of swearing as a marker of low social class and its current prevalence among the wealthy and powerful. It discusses the difficulty in tracing the origins of swear words due to their exclusion from dictionaries and etymologies. The paragraph also highlights the psychological benefits of moderate swearing, such as pain management and emotional expression, supported by studies showing that swearing can increase pain tolerance and lessen social and emotional pain. The role of swearing in building trust and bonding within groups is also mentioned, as well as its potential to serve as an outlet for aggression, reducing the likelihood of physical violence.

05:01

🔮 The Cultural and Historical Context of Swearing

Paragraph 2 delves into the cultural and historical aspects of swearing. It explains how taboos have shifted from religious references to more secular themes like sex and excrement, with variations across different cultures. The paragraph also touches on the primal and magical nature of swearing, suggesting that its power lies in its ability to evoke strong emotions and reactions. The narrative concludes with a reminder of the importance of using swear words judiciously to maintain their impact, much like magic that loses its potency when overused.

Keywords

💡Swearing

Swearing refers to the use of offensive or taboo language. In the video, swearing is discussed in both a historical and psychological context, showing how it has evolved from being associated with lower-class individuals to being commonly used by all social classes, including the rich and powerful. The video also explains how swearing can have practical benefits, such as pain relief and emotional expression.

💡Non-propositional swearing

Non-propositional swearing refers to involuntary, reflexive swearing that occurs as an emotional outburst, such as when someone experiences sudden pain or frustration. The video highlights this form of swearing as a natural human reaction, often tied to intense emotions, and it contrasts this with more calculated uses of language.

💡Pain management

Pain management is the process of reducing or controlling pain. In the video, swearing is shown to act as a pain management tool, helping people withstand physical discomfort, as demonstrated by an experiment where swearing allowed participants to keep their hands in ice water longer. This finding suggests that swearing has a physiological effect on pain tolerance.

💡Taboo

A taboo is something that is socially or culturally forbidden or frowned upon. In the context of the video, taboo words are those considered inappropriate or offensive, yet they carry a certain power because society has collectively agreed that these words should not be used casually. The video explains how the concept of taboo has shifted over time, from religious to bodily and sexual topics.

💡Aphasia

Aphasia is a condition characterized by the loss of the ability to understand or produce speech due to brain damage, typically on the left side of the brain. The video mentions that people with aphasia often retain the ability to swear, highlighting how swearing is processed differently in the brain compared to other forms of language.

💡Right hemisphere of the brain

The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with emotion and creativity, and in the video, it is linked to the production of swearing. Unlike most language functions, which are typically managed by the left hemisphere, swearing is more emotional and instinctive, relying on the right hemisphere for its expression.

💡Social bonding

Social bonding refers to the process of forming close personal connections. The video explains that swearing can help strengthen social bonds by fostering trust and showing emotional authenticity. Groups that swear together often perform better on shared tasks, as swearing signals a level of comfort and trust between individuals.

💡Taboo shift

Taboo shift describes the change in what society considers forbidden or inappropriate over time. In the video, it is explained that in earlier centuries, religious swearing was seen as dangerous, whereas modern taboos focus more on bodily functions and sexual language. This shift reflects broader cultural changes, such as the move from a religiously governed society to a more secular one.

💡Catastrophizing

Catastrophizing refers to the act of viewing or interpreting a situation as far worse than it actually is. The video discusses how psychologists once believed that swearing might exacerbate negative emotions by catastrophizing pain or frustration, but recent studies show that swearing can actually help manage these feelings instead of amplifying them.

💡Emotional reflex

An emotional reflex is an involuntary, immediate reaction to an emotional stimulus. In the video, swearing is presented as an emotional reflex, similar to a dog's bark or a lion's growl. This kind of swearing is automatic and tied to strong emotions, making it a primal and instinctive behavior that bypasses rational thought.

Highlights

Swearing has been historically associated with poor or low-class people.

Today, even the rich and powerful use swear words.

Language gatekeepers often pretend that bad words don't exist.

Dictionaries and etymologies ignored swear words for hundreds of years.

Swearing is a fundamental part of human vocabulary.

Using swear words in moderation may be good for your psyche.

Non-propositional swearing is unplanned and almost involuntary.

Psychologists once discouraged swearing due to its association with negative emotions.

Swearing can act as a pain management mechanism.

Swearing increases the average amount of time one can withstand pain by 50%.

Swearing is effective at lessening social and emotional pain.

The effectiveness of swearing increases with the 'naughtiness' of the word.

Swearing can be overused, reducing its benefits.

Swearing relies more on the right side of the brain, which is about emotion and creativity.

People with brain damage to the left side often retain their ability to swear.

Swearing is an emotional reflex rather than a rational behavior.

Swearing can help build trust and strengthen group bonds.

Displays of emotion like swearing are interpreted as genuine and harder to fake.

Swearing can minimize the potential for violence by offering an outlet for aggression.

Bad words were once considered taboo because they were believed to have power.

Cultural taboos have shifted from religion to sex, excrement, and body parts.

The taboo on swearing is shared and allows us to know when the situation is serious.

Swearing has a primal magic that has been with us for thousands of years.

Transcripts

- Swearing gets a bad rap.

For a long time, it was associtated.

(BEEP) Let me try again.

Swearing gets a bad rap.

For a long time, it was associate.

(BEEP) Swearing gets a bad rap.

For a long time, it was associ.

(BEEP) Mind is a piece of (BEEP) today.

For a long time, it was associated only with poor

or low-class people.

In fact, the word vulgar originally just meant common.

But if you've ever watched "Succession,"

you know that today the rich and powerful

drop plenty of F-bombs.

- I'm not dignifying that (BEEP)

question with an answer.

You can both (BEEP) off.

- Despite their popularity, the gatekeepers of language

often like to pretend that bad words don't exist.

Dictionaries and etymologies ignored them

for hundreds of years, which is why today

it's so hard to tell how they originated.

Anything that even sounds like a swear word

gets scrubbed from acceptable vocabulary,

which is why donkey and rooster

have replaced their forerunners.

Even Shakespeare had his cusses removed from some editions.

- Zounds, What a tragedy!

- But so-called bad words are a fundamental part

of human vocabulary and there is some evidence

that using them in moderation may actually

be good for your psyche.

I'm Dr. Erica Brozovsky and this is Outerwords. Otherwords.

(BEEP) We'll do it live.

(upbeat music)

- [Announcer] Otherwords.

- Even the cleanest mouths among us have stepped on a Lego

or gotten some bad news and let an expletive slip.

Linguists call this non-propositional swearing,

meaning unplanned, almost involuntary outbursts.

For a long time, psychologists discouraged this type

of swearing because it thought it catastrophized

negative emotions, meaning it made you feel even worse.

But then why would we all have this reflexive urge to do it?

Ow, son of a (BEEP).

This is what psychologist Dr. Richard Stephens wondered.

And he sought to test it with a very cool experiment.

Participants were asked to hold their hands in buckets

of ice water for as long as they could,

once while repeating a swear word

and once with a neutral word.

No matter what order they went in,

swearing increased the average amount of time

they could withstand the pain by 50%.

The swearing was acting as some kind

of pain management mechanism.

Subsequent studies bore these findings out.

And there was evidence that swearing was effective

at lessening social and emotional pain as well.

In some experiments, it seemed that the naughtier

the word was, the more effective it was.

So saying shoot or gosh darn was like taking

children's Tylenol, better than nothing

but not as good as the real deal.

Like medicinal painkillers, they can also be overused.

People who tended to swear a lot got less

of a benefit from it.

To understand what the F is going on here,

we'll have to take a look inside the human brain.

Most people know that the brain is divided

into two hemispheres, the left side which specializes

in higher order reasoning and the right side

which is all about emotion and creativity.

In reality, it's quite a bit more complicated than that

but you get the idea.

Most of our language functions reside

in the left hemisphere, which makes sense because a language

involves the arrangement of complex thoughts.

Swearing however seems to rely more

on the right side of the brain.

This has been witnessed by neuroscientists in real life.

People who suffer massive damage to the left side

of the brain often lose significant language ability,

a condition known as aphasia.

However, many of them retain their ability to swear

and tend to swear more often.

Conversely, many who have suffered damage to the right side

of the brain can still speak clearly and coherently

but seem to lose the ability or urge to swear.

Swearing, at least the non-propositional kind,

is clearly more of an emotional reflex

than a rational behavior.

That's why some linguists think it's more akin

to a dog's bark or a lion's growl

than human language.

It quickens the heartbeat, dulls pain,

gets us ready for action.

And because it's so associated with emotion,

swearing can actually help build trust.

Studies show that groups that swear conversationally

tend to forge stronger bonds and perform better

at shared tasks.

Displays of emotion like swearing are generally interpreted

to be more genuine and harder to fake than ordinary speech.

And breaking taboos in front of other people implies a level

of shared trust and understanding.

Swearing can even minimize the potential for violence

by offering an outlet for aggression.

Instead of throwing punches or pulling hair,

we can show how (BEEP) we are with words instead.

Such displays of aggression as a substitute for violence

are pretty common throughout the animal world.

The words we consider bad give us power

because they are taboo.

But if you go back 500 years, it was the other way around.

Bad words were considered taboo

because people believed they had power.

Back then naughty language was focused on God and religion.

Invoking the deity's name, swearing by something sacred,

or cursing someone were supposed to have real effects

in the real world.

This is why we call them swears, oaths,

and curses or cusses.

Some of Shakespeare's favorites, 'sblood, 'slid, zounds,

were shortening of God's blood, God's eyelid,

and God's wounds.

If you're swearing by God's body parts,

the next thing you say better be true

or your soul may pay for it.

And you didn't say "damn you" or "go to hell"

unless you really wanted someone

to go to hell, like literally.

As culture became more secular, taboos shifted from religion

to things like sex, excrement, and body parts,

though it's hardly universal.

In Germany, some of the worst swears involve animals,

calling people dogs or pigs.

And in Japan, there's not such a stigma around feces.

In fact, they seem to find it kind of cute.

So having a (BEEP) might be a good thing.

Whatever the taboo is, the important thing

is that it's shared.

We've all collectively agreed to put certain words

behind glass, not so that they're never used

but so that we can know when (BEEP) gets real.

It may not be the most sophisticated form of expression

but there's a primal magic to swearing

that's still with us after thousands of years.

And like any magic, if you use it too much,

it can lose its powder.

Power! (BEEP)

Wait, before you go.

I think you're gonna love "Fate & Fabled",

a brand-new show here on Storied.

Co-hosts Dr. Emily Zarka and Dr. Moiya McTier

unpack ancient myths and legends to find out

why such tales were crafted and investigate

mythology's influence on humanity.

Their first episode on the Fates is live right now.

So maybe it's destiny that I'm telling you about it now.

Be sure to tell them Dr. B sent you.

But then why would we all have this reflexive urge to do it?

Ow, son of a pinch.

So having a jiggy day might be a good thing. Fungi.

Otherwords. Fudge it, we'll do it live.

But so that we can know when chin gets real.

Power! Butterfrogger!