Frequent swearing lessens its efficiency as pain-reliever(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Frequent swearing lessens its efficiency as pain-reliever
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22078790
7 comments
Having two young ones in the house, I have switched from swearing to saying "ouch!" or "ow!" when hurt. The pain relief effect still works just fine. I wish their study had included non-swearing verbal emotional response.
A colleague of mine said the exact opposite a couple of days ago - having hit his hand with a hammer, he was unable to use the words he wanted because his four-year-old was around, and that was annoying.
In the third episode of Fry's Planet Word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Planet_Word#Uses_and_Ab...) an experiment is conducted that illustrates this effect.
I think I need to swear more
Or, use your "Fuck!"s wisely.
"consistent with our theory that the underlying mechanism by which swearing increases pain tolerance is the provocation of an emotional response."
Really? Not because it releases tension? These guys couldn't hypothesize their way out of a paper bag.
Really? Not because it releases tension? These guys couldn't hypothesize their way out of a paper bag.
Maybe "releases tension" is not a well-defined phenomenon, or is just another phrase that describes "an emotional response."