I am usually wary of the liberal bias of the New York Times but every now and then they split the bullseye. Like this article:
Cursing and Pain Relief
By Nicholas Bakalar
If you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? Automatically or involuntarily cursing under such circumstances is extremely common, if not universal, and a group of British scientists wondered if cursing helps reduce the agony..For their study, published online July 13 in NeuroReport, researchers found 68 student volunteers willing to place their hands in ice water to see how long they could stand it. First, the experimenters asked them for “five words you might use after hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer.” (One of them managed to come up with five words that were not curses, so the researchers eliminated that student from the experiment. Among the others, the favorites were the two four-letter words you are now thinking of. Since the students were English, “bollocks” was also a common selection.)
The volunteers then immersed their non-dominant hands in 41-degree water while repeating the first swear word on their list. As a control, they went through the same process, but this time using neutral a word they had chosen to describe a table.
The researchers measured their heart rates and timed how long they could keep their hands in the ice water. On average, people were able to withstand the pain for significantly longer if they cursed than if they did not. Swearing also increased heart rate and decreased subjective reports of pain.“Scientifically speaking,” said Richard Stephens, the lead author, “we’ve only looked at one particular kind of pain. Different kinds of pain are slightly different physiologically. Nevertheless, the finding probably carries over.” Dr. Stephens, who is a lecturer in psychology at Keele University in England, said that swearing has its proper place. “I wouldn’t recommend it with little kids around,” he said, “but it can be helpful and useful.”
So… anybody who wants to give me **** the next time I cuss out some ******* driving slow in front of me – well…. hmmpf. Science is on my side.
Damn shame that George Carlin is not still around. He could work this study into his “Seven Words” bit in a way that would be magical.
Jim,
This post brings to mind the old joke about the preacher that was doing some carpentry work. A little boy started watching him and when the preacher asked him if hw was learning, the boy replied that what he wanted to know is what a preacher says when he smashes his finger with a hammer.
The Following is an unpaid Advertisement
Announcing the opening of Dirty Dick’s Institute of Higher Invective. For a mere trifle of a fee, the student will be instructed in all forms of salty pronouncements from exclamations of astonishment to pejorative epithet and the more generally picturesque employment of cussery by salting general discourse with it in order to add colour. At the end of the course, all students will be required to pass an examination that shall be rendered whilst driving cross town in Manhattan during Rush hour and those graduating, shall be awarded a Doctor of Cussedness, allowing them to treat the passive with the life affirming and extending joy of Damnating Semiotics.
Please send $25 to ……….
A good idea, but most of the folks I know who swear like sailors don’t know the meaning of ‘Semiotics”
Well Jim, not to be academic about it but f*%#k em then.
Good thing that the feds have not yet classified the # key as an obscenity.