Long thought to help express frustration and reduce stress in difficult or anxiety producing circumstances – ask any women who has gone through childbirth or a construction worker who has hit his finger with a hammer – it now turns out that swearing may actually reduce the pain or at least increase tolerance to it.
In a new study published recently in Neuro Report, researchers at Keele University’s School of Psychology in England had 64 undergraduates submerge their hands in buckets of icy water twice. The first time, participants repeated a curse word over and over. The next time, they repeated a neutral word.
When they repeated the curse words, participants were able to withstand the water longer and reported a lesser pain level than when they repeated the common, everyday word. Be warned that the pain-lessening effect only works in extreme situation. As swearing is an emotional language, if overused, it loses its emotional attachment
Could be useful knowledge in times of distress.
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