We know, from other studies, that two physical pains experienced in quick succession have an entirely unexpected effect on the way we perceive them. One of the most astounding experiments to demonstrate the equivalence between social and physical pain looks at the way two pains that are experienced in quick succession tend to interact. For most of human history, experiencing loss or rejection could have been as detrimental to your survival as appendicitis or a broken leg.
Experiments with acetaminophen10 and marijuana11 (not at the same time) show that identical analgesics can relieve both social and physical pain. Social pain, feelings of being rejected or excluded, is as real as physical pain. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Swearing Is Good for You".“The relationship between physical pain and emotional states is definitely a complicated one, made more so by the fact that we all experience something called social pain. That connection explains why polyglots generally prefer to curse in their native tongue, even if they rarely use it otherwise, and why swearing has been shown to help deaden pain.Īn academic text it is not, but Byrne's entertaining skim through more than a century of research on linguistics, psychology, and other social sciences achieves her goal of giving profanity "the respect it fucking deserves." Unlike other aspects of language, swearing triggers a reaction in the subcortex, a more primitive part of the brain that's also responsible for emotions and bodily functions.
Our love of dirty words is part nurture-shared vulgarities build social cohesion, she posits, whether in an office or a stadium-and part nature. Cursing isn't actually crude at all-it's a complex mix of social signals, emotional expression, and cultural significance, argues Emma Byrne in her new book Swearing Is Good For You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language.
It just feels really good to say "fuck!" Everyone's favorite four-letter word can be an expression of anger, frustration, or celebration.
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