Swearing relieves pain

Swearing can relieve pain, but the effect is much greater for those who don't curse regularly, research suggests.

A team at Keele University found that people who only swear occasionally were able to cope with the pain of holding their hand in ice-cold water for longer when swearing, compared with those whose everyday language is riddled with swear words.

Researchers had previously shown that people can withstand an ice-cold water challenge for longer by repeatedly swearing compared with reciting a neutral word.

It's thought that swearing helps most people better tolerate pain by provoking an emotional response in the speaker – possibly aggression or anger – leading to "stress-induced analgesia".

This natural form of pain relief is part of the body’s “fight or flight” response, along with the well-known surge in adrenalin.

But the researchers also wanted to find out if people who swear often in everyday life get as much pain relief from cursing as those who swear less frequently.

In the study, 71 students placed a hand in ice-cold water while repeating either a swear word or a neutral word. The students were also questioned on how much they swore in everyday life.

It was found that people who swore less often doubled the amount of time they could withstand the ice water challenge when repeatedly swearing compared to using a neutral word.

However, people with the highest level of swearing - up to 60 times a day - held their hand in the ice water for the same amount of time when swearing or using a neutral word.

People who curse more often get used to or 'habituated to swearing', the researchers explained. This lessens the emotional response, and as a result, reduces the pain relieving effect.

Dr Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in Psychology at Keele University, said: "Swearing is a very emotive form of language and our findings suggest that over-use of swear words can water down their emotional effect.

"Used in moderation, swearing can be an effective and readily available short-term pain reliever if, for example, you are in a situation where there is no access to medical care or painkillers. However, if you’re used to swearing all the time, our research suggests you won’t get the same effect.

"Normal language is associated with the cortex (the outer layer) of the left side of the brain, but swearing seems to activate deeper parts of the brain more associated with emotions.

"In the context of pain swearing appears to serve as a simple form of emotional self-management. Whether swearing has beneficial effects in other contexts is something we would like to explore in the future.

“Our research suggests that swearing is a useful part of language that can help us express strong emotions or react to high pressure situations. However, it would be wise only to swear in moderation as over-use of swearing seems to water down this effect."

The study is published in The Journal of Pain.

This article was published on Thu 1 December 2011