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from the firetruck?-feedback?-flick?-fiddleneck?-feedback?-flock? dept.
The F-word's hidden superpower: repeating it can increase your pain threshold:
There have been a surprising number of studies in recent years examining the effects of swearing, specifically whether it can help relieve pain—either physical or psychological (as in the case of traumatic memories or events). According to the latest such study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, constantly repeating the F-word—as one might do if one hit one's thumb with a hammer—can increase one's pain threshold.
The technical term is the "hypoalgesic effect of swearing," best illustrated by a 2009 study in NeuroReport by researchers at Keele University in the UK. The work was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, "for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain." Co-author Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele, became interested in studying the topic after noting his wife's "unsavory language" while giving birth, and wondered if profanity really could help alleviate pain. "Swearing is such a common response to pain. There has to be an underlying reason why we do it," Stephens told Scientific American at the time.
[...] The result: "Only the traditional swear word (the F-word) had any effect on pain outcomes," said Stephens. They also measured the subjects' pain threshold, asking them to indicate when the ice water began to feel painful. Those who chanted the F-word waited longer before indicating they felt pain—in other words, the swearing increased their threshold for pain.
Journal Reference
Stephens, Richard, Robertson, Olly. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel "Swear" Words, Frontiers in Psychology (DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00723)
Does it work as well in other languages? What about [non]-English-speaking people?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday June 09 2020, @12:43PM (2 children)
I seriously doubt it's the actual word that matters. If anything it's probably conditioning to swearing and not the actual word. After all they got to pick a word from a list to say -- fuck, fouch (sounds a bit like fuck, but not quite), twizpipe (what the actual fuck is that?) and a neutral word describing a table (?). Out of those options I would think that FUCK! would have the most effect to, it's probably the only one that triggers some underlying aggression conditioning or response.
Overall tho they seem to put a lot of emphasis on the power of words. I would think the adrenalin-surge happens faster then your eventual fuck-fuck-fuck-chanting even begins. If anything it is probably more of a mind-over-matter issue where you have conditioned yourself to act this way by trigger-words. You psych yourself up/out or whatnot trying to pump up and push away the pain. Faking yourself out to push the body into getting ready for a fight -- vs the dreaded ice-bucket. They might get similar responses by just having a research assistant bitchslap them repeatedly as they have their hand in ice-cold water. There should be enough of a pain-distraction there to. Eventually they will pull out their hand and choke the assistant to death or something ...
It should. I'm fairly sure it's not the actual FUCK!-word that does the pain alleviation but other processes. So you could probably just train yourself to say anything else really. That FUCK! works is probably more about that there was english (american) speaking college students being the testsubjects. People in other countries, and or cultures, could probably gain similar effects by other words and expressions more common there. That said considering how common FUCK! has become it's probably a viable word in most of the world tho -- thanks to Hollywood, TV and anglocentric culture spreading across the world.
Swearing does say something about cultures, are you a curse-culture where swearing is more religious in nature or is it more profane and sexual in nature -- american/english seem to focus heavily on the sexual part -- fuck, motherfucker, cocksucker while other cultures seem to be more about invoking God, the Devil, Satan, hell and various other religious objects and such. I would assume they would get similar effects by other words.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150306-how-to-swear-around-the-world [bbc.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @05:48PM
Sounds like they just chose the most common serious swear word, and yes for English though due to Hollywood that probably extends to other countries. They do mention that swearing is what does the trick, not JUST "fuck" so take it down a notch sasquatch!
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:40PM
The Dutch use diseases, and god damn. But they aspirate the consonants in swear words, even though the rest of the whole language is unaspirated.
I once had a Dutch girl complain to me that it was so tiring learning English because of all the aspirated consonants.