Swearing makes us happier and stronger as foul language does two issues to your physique
One theory behind why swearing like a trooper makes you happier and more positive is that potty-mouthed people are more likely to engage in risky behaviours and less inhibited
Swearing makes us happier – and stronger, boffins have discovered. A foul-mouthed tirade actually improved the grip of folks struggling to twist a tight lid off a jam jar, a study found.
Participants tested had greater handgrip strength after repeatedly shouting swear words including s*** and f*** compared with those who didn’t.
The research was carried out by eggheads from Keele University here and The University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. A spokesman said: “We have shown that repeating a swear word leads to increased performance on a grip-strength task.”
The experiment, reported in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, involved 52 men and women.
They repeated either a swear or neutral word aloud for 10 seconds before carrying out various tests, a grip-strength task and completing several questionnaires.
Electrodes were used to measure electrical activity in their brains with the data fed into computers.
Results show that in the handgrip strength test, those who had cursed were stronger by 1.4kg than those who had spoken the neutral words.
Those who swore like a trooper were also found to be more happier and more positive.
One theory is that using bad language makes people less inhibited and more likely to show risky behavior.
The spokesman for the researchers added that there findings also proved they were “confirming the effects of swearing on positive emotion”.
This research follows the finding that swearing is also good for your mental and physical health.
Humans developed swearing long ago to help deal with stressful situations over which they had little control, experts have said.
While most language comes from the cortex and left hemisphere of the brain, swearing has been found in an older, deeper lying part of the brain called the basal ganglia, explains psychologist Richard Stephens, author of ‘Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad’.
Stephens argues that swearing helps humans develop tolerance towards physical pain, claiming it works as a painkiller.
He says: “As well as the pain tolerance change, participants also showed an increase in heart rate. When you swear your heart rate goes up even more, which suggests an emotional response to the swearing itself.
“This response is the stress fight or flight response and it works as an analgesic.”
