Swearing linked with increased pain tolerance and strength

Researchers have found a link between saying a swear word out loud and enduring discomfort for longer. Photo / 123RF

Researchers are working to understand why swearing may help in a number of circumstances, with a major focus on pain, and how it can more effectively be used in a clinical setting.

If you stub your toe or slam your finger in a door, there’s a good chance the first thing out of your mouth is a four-letter word. But although swearing is a near-universal feature of language, it is still considered taboo by many.

Olly Robertson is not one of them. “It’s something that we all share, and it is really magical. It holds so much power over us as societies,” said Robertson, a psychology researcher at the University of Oxford. “It does something for us.”

One of those things is an increase in pain tolerance.

Swearing is “a drug-free, calorie-neutral, cost-free means of self-help”, said Richard Stephens, a researcher and senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in England.

Researchers are working to understand the mechanisms underlying swearing’s impact in a number of circumstances, with a major focus on pain. With that knowledge, Stephens said, swearing can more effectively be used in a clinical setting.

Pain reduction through swearing

In 2009, Stephens and his colleagues published the first study linking swearing with hypoalgesia - a reduced sensitivity to pain. Subjects were asked to participate in a cold pressor task, in which they held their hands in ice water for as long as possible while repeating either a swear word of their choosing or a non-swear word. Swearing was associated with not only increased pain tolerance but also decreased perceived pain.

Studies followed showing similar, yet sometimes varied, effects. In 2020, for instance, Stephens and Robertson investigated the use of the swear “f***” compared with a neutral word and two made-up swear words - “fouch” and “twizpipe” - and found that swearing was linked with increased pain tolerance but had no significant effect on pain perception.

That association between swearing and increased pain tolerance is not specific to the English language. In 2017, Robertson and Stephens published a study investigating the cross-cultural effect of swearing on pain, comparing Japanese and English speakers. In Japan, Robertson said, swearing is not socially ingrained the way it is in Britain, so she doubted that it would have the same effect.

While doing the cold presser task, native English speakers repeated either the swear “f***” or a control word - “cup” - and native Japanese speakers repeated a Japanese word that means s*** or a control word “kappu”, meaning cup. Regardless of language, swearing was linked with greater pain tolerance.

“Which I wasn’t expecting at all, because I was expecting to see that social effect,” Robertson said.

In addition to pain tolerance, swearing has been linked to bolstered social bonds, improved memory, and even an alleviation of the social pain of exclusion or rejection. Photo / 123RF

Swearing has benefits beyond physical pain

In addition to pain tolerance, swearing has been linked to bolstered social bonds, improved memory, and even an alleviation of the social pain of exclusion or rejection.

“Neurologically, the pathways for physical pain and emotional pain are the same,” Robertson said. “So when you have heartbreak, it’s the same neural structures. It’s the same biological blueprint, and that’s why it feels so visceral, because it literally is.”

More recently, swearing has been shown to be linked with an increase in strength. Looking at the impact of swearing on strength was a logical progression, Stephens said, because he and others had shown that swearing while in pain often was associated with increased heart rate, similar to what happens during a “fight or flight” stress response, where your body releases a surge of adrenaline and blood is diverted to your muscles to prepare for action.

In 2018, Stephens and his colleagues found that, in an anaerobic power test on a bike, swearing was linked with an improvement in participant strength. However, they were unable to identify any physiological variable - including heart rate - that correlated with the finding. Stephens has since shifted his focus more to the psychological.

“My research has been trying to understand what’s the psychological mechanism by which swearing brings about these effects, both for pain and for physical strength,” he said.

But what exactly connects swearing with greater strength and pain tolerance remains a mystery.

Over the past few years, Stephens has focused on state disinhibition theory: “The idea that, by swearing, we just get ourselves in a place where we’re more disinhibited, and in a disinhibited state, we push ourselves further, go for it a little bit more,” he said. “So we’ll put up with the ice-cold water for a few more seconds, or [in a strength task] we’ll squeeze on the hand gripper with a little more force.”

Swearing during exercise might make you stronger, studies suggest. Photo / 123RF

The optimal swearing dosage

Up until this point, testing the link between swearing and pain has been done in a controlled, laboratory setting.

Nick Washmuth, professor of physical therapy at Samford University in Alabama, is focused on the potential for swearing to be used in a clinical context, which means understanding not only the mechanisms by which swearing affects pain but also how a person’s environment, age, how much they already swear in their everyday lives, the intensity of the swear word and other variables could influence the effect.

“We need to better understand those factors and how they play a role to be able to prescribe swearing in a medical sense, in a clinical sense,” Washmuth said. “Is there an optimal dosage for swearing?”

For those who would like to use swearing to help with pain or increase strength, Washmuth suggested starting by selecting a swear word that feels powerful, that you would naturally use if you stubbed your toe, for instance.

“If no word comes to mind, the f-word is the most commonly self-selected swear word by participants in these studies and is considered one of the most powerful swear words out there,” he said. “Swear at a steady pace once a second to once every three seconds, at a normal speech volume.”

But if audible swearing is not your thing, do not despair. Washmuth is now studying whether internal swearing could do the trick.

“Swearing out loud is frowned upon in many public places, right? So we’re trying to determine if you can swear using your inner monologue to get the same effect,” Washmuth said. “Can you swear in your head to decrease pain or improve strength?”