
Study Finds Link Between Profanity and Honesty - baalcat
http://neurosciencenews.com/profanity-honesty-psychology-5944/
======
donquichotte
"The research found that those who used more profanity were also more likely
to use language patterns that have been shown in previous research to be
related to honesty, such as using pronouns like “I” and “me”."

I wish they gave a source for the relationship between using these pronouns
and telling the truth.

Also, just looking at facebook users introduces a bloody selection bias.

~~~
smcnally
w/r/t selection bias, "As of the third quarter of 2016, Facebook had 1.79
billion monthly active users."
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-
monthly...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-
active-facebook-users-worldwide/)

Their sample pool covers better than 25% of the human population.

~~~
dathanb82
While that's a very large pool, it's almost certainly not random.

~~~
pocketsquare2
What sample size or methodology for the question at hand would satisfy you at
this point?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science)

~~~
dathanb82
A huge sample size does not necessarily mean a good sample. While it's
difficult to say what the impact of sampling only from a group of people who
self-select into a given population, it's clearly a bias. If a quarter of the
population self-selects into Facebook, I'd prefer a sample that includes three
times as many people who didn't.

If nothing else, it's worth considering the demographics: within the USA,
women use Facebook at a higher rate than men; people with some college
education use Facebook at a higher rate than either college graduates or
adults who've never been to college; Facebook use rate is roughly negatively
correlated with income level; use of Facebook is negatively correlated with
age ([http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-
update-20...](http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-
update-2016/)). So the leftover US population skews male and slightly higher-
income than the Facebook population. And globally, Facebook use is correlated
with national wealth (minus some outliers). So there's clearly a sampling
bias, and that's worth understanding.

That said, whether the results would be any different is hard (impossible?) to
say without actually trying a different sampling methodology, and I suspect
the results from this study are valid, sampling bias notwithstanding.

------
edblarney
This should not be surprising.

I'd say two things, which are related:

1) Profanity itself is a form of crude honestly - in any remotely genteel
social setting - 'profanity' is usually politically costly. Would you swear in
an interview? No.

Ok - there are some times when 'people in power' can swear as a form of
strength/power projection - but that aside ...

People who 'control' their behaviour mostly to 'be polite' \- will use that
communication control to gain political favour in every little social
interaction. Some do it aggressively.

We all know this kind of person.

So - the 'swearers' are just using less 'filter', and so 'what you see' is
really more likely their actual thoughts - 'no filter applied'.

2) If you step outside of professional circles and hang out with 'working
class types' (I don't mean to be crude with generalizations) - like guys on a
construction crew - you'll find that these people swear sometimes. I'm
originally from a small town, a lot of working class types there - and if
there are only guys around, you'll hear some cussing. These people generally
don't have 'learned filters' that most professionals would use to communicate
- because there is no reason why they should have developed those filters.
They're just 'honest' by nature.

I've always kind of felt this way.

'Smooth communicators' are the one's you have to worry about :)

~~~
jghn
_" Would you swear in an interview? No."_

Yes. And if someone held it against me it's unlikely to be a place I want to
work.

~~~
oddlyaromatic
Interesting. I mean, do what works for you but to me, swearing in an interview
shows weird judgement. I would not put a lot of confidence in someone who
makes that choice to be easy to work with, professional, and treat their
coworkers with respect. I'd just think, you know, this asshole doesn't want to
have a respectful relationship, and doesn't really get this situation. I swear
plenty but I hold it in at work. I've never interviewed somebody who swore in
the interview (a couple words wouldn't be a big deal I guess)... But I have
interviewed people who gave off other signs of poor judgement. One of the
things I really need in my (non-tech) industry is people I can trust to
independently make good choices in many situations among different kinds of
people. Surely most employers need that.

------
mmaunder
Totally fucking true because, when I was a kid, I caught such hell from my
parents for lying that I've become a pathological truth teller. And I cuss, a
lot.

~~~
mack73
Did your parents cuss while giving you hell, because that might be why you are
cussing today. Also, do you have kids? Do you give them hell for whatever
reason?

~~~
xyzzy_plugh
Anecdotally, I swear a lot, but my parents never did when I was growing up, at
least in front of me. I started swearing like a sailor pretty young and I've
never really stopped. I swear a lot in the workplace. My relationship with my
parents has relaxed a lot over the years, and we enjoy swearing somewhat
gratuitously in each other's company.

Some more anecdata: I realize that when I am in the company of strangers or
acquaintances, a bit of casual swearing goes a long way to create a relaxed,
open environment. I've had some pretty candid conversations with otherwise
very serious people that I otherwise would have been very nervous or
apprehensive about.

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gsam
It seems like a straightforward relation. Less self-filtering results in more
honesty. Honesty is often not what people want to hear, and that includes
profanity.

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dongslol
Profanity is about emotional honesty. Swearing implies anger. Replacing "that
fucker beat up my friend everyday" with "that ill-intentioned person beat up
my friend everyday" is emotionally inaccurate.

~~~
aninhumer
Perhaps, but I think the words are far less important than other means of
emotional expression.

You could easily say that first line like you're joking about a friend, and
the latter with the cold malice of hatred.

------
majkinetor
I always liked that Linus Torvalds uses so much of profanity (he also stated
that cursing is part of Finnish culture). It alienated some people (see
[https://goo.gl/JBESqf](https://goo.gl/JBESqf)):

> Sarah, first off, I don't have that many tools at hand. Secondly, I simply
> don't believe in being polite or politically correct. And you can point at
> all those cultural factors where some cultures are not happy with
> confrontation (and feel free to make it about gender too—I think that's
> almost entirely cultural too). And please bring up "cultural sensitivity"
> while at it. And I'll give you back that same "cultural sensitivity". Please
> be sensitive to _my_ culture too.

> Because if you want me to "act professional," I can tell you that I'm not
> interested. I'm sitting in my home office wearing a bathrobe. The same way
> I'm not going to start wearing ties, I'm _also_ not going to buy into the
> fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the
> passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords. Because THAT is what "acting
> professionally" results in: people resort to all kinds of really nasty
> things because they are forced to act out their normal urges in unnatural
> ways.

\---

My opinion is that people who are not flexible enough to accept few fucks in
the conversation are generally those that I don't want to work with - they are
usually borring to me and often don't convey impact of the problem with
appropriate strength.

Political correctness is such paradoxical bullshit. Ofcourse, as in any
domain, people who are extreme in such behavior are generally harmful but that
should not be argument against anything.

Besides being more honest, recent study found that profane people have more
diverse vocabulary ([https://goo.gl/GIEhKD](https://goo.gl/GIEhKD)) and are
probably perceived as being more intelligent.

------
chiph
Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MxASfYV...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MxASfYV50N4J:neurosciencenews.com/profanity-
honesty-psychology-5944/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

~~~
teach
A lot of reading for precious little information:

Source: University of Cambridge.

Writing in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science a team of
researchers from the Netherlands, the UK, the USA and Hong Kong

"The international team of researchers set out to gauge people’s views about
this sort of language in a series of questionnaires which included
interactions with social media users.

"In the first questionnaire 276 participants were asked to list their most
commonly used and favourite swear words. They were also asked to rate their
reasons for using these words and then took part in a lie test to determine
whether they were being truthful or simply responding in the way they thought
was socially acceptable. Those who wrote down a higher number of curse words
were less likely to be lying.

"A second survey involved collecting data from 75,000 Facebook users to
measure their use of swear words in their online social interactions. The
research found that those who used more profanity were also more likely to use
language patterns that have been shown in previous research to be related to
honesty, such as using pronouns like “I” and “me”. The Facebook users were
recruited from across the United States and their responses highlight the
differing views to profanity that exist between different geographical areas.
For example, those in the north-eastern states (such as Connecticut, Delaware,
New Jersey and New York) were more likely to swear whereas people were less
likely to in the southern states (South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee and
Mississippi)."

Doesn't strike me as a terribly strong result.

~~~
kristopolous
If you were tasked with it, how would you construct further research in the
future to further test these results?

------
aarontyree
There is very little profanity in these thoughtful and analytical comments.
You're all fucking liars.

------
astrodust
It'd be interesting to see this broken down by vernacular, doing analysis on
word frequency and other identifiers in language.

Does this make Samuel L. Jackson's characters the most honest? He sure speaks
how he feels when in those roles.

------
dicroce
the fuck?

------
bedhead
About fuckin time.

------
thesz
The people who cannot spend energy to control themselves and therefore curse
are less prone to using self-control-dependent strategy of lies and deception.

Wowsers.

~~~
jdietrich
I don't swear because I lack self-control. I swear because those words are
powerful and useful. "Bullshit" is an immeasurably better word than any of the
alternatives. Some people are entirely deserving of the label "arsehole" or
"bastard".

I fundamentally distrust people who don't swear. To me it has always signalled
priggishness, timidity and conformity. People who see swearing as a sign of
poor education or a limited vocabulary are, in my experience, invariably
petty, snobbish and bigoted.

If I want an honest opinion, I'll ask someone who isn't afraid to speak
plainly. If I need someone to help me out in a difficult situation, I'll call
on someone who swears like a wounded pirate - they're not going to be afraid
to get their hands dirty.

We are sacks of meat that fuck and piss and shit. We always will be. If you
want to pretend otherwise then good luck to you, but I don't trust you for a
second.

~~~
Bulkington
As someone who grew up in a home in which no one swore or used profanity, I'd
argue that for me to have adopted common vulgarity from the schoolyard
would've been 'conformity.' That, and I was fully capable of kicking the ass
of any bully who challenged my being too 'timid' to speak inappropriately.
Indeed, vulgarity from privileged white young males is a cliche of token
rebellion. Or it was a generation ago--kind of like surburban white kids
affecting gangsta slang today. You're dismissed.

------
milesf
I don't buy it. I know people with clean language that I don't trust, and
friends who swear that I do. But in general I see profanity and anger as a red
flag in relationships to be heeded, because it shows a general lack of respect
towards others.

Next thing you know, evil will be good and good will be evil. Oh, wait a
sec...

~~~
taeric
Anecdotally, you have some supporting evidence but ultimately don't trust it.
That seems silly.

You also conflate anger and profanity. Which is clearly a load of shit. They
are distinct things.

I doubt it is cut and dried, but I'm interested in the research. And I
distrust it as much because it confirms my general beliefs. And that should be
a red flag for everyone.

~~~
zer0t3ch
> a load of _shit_

Your comment is anecdotal proof that profanity doesn't have jack shit to do
with anger.

~~~
taeric
I realized later that I left out a smiley, or better evidence of humor.
Hopefully it was taken as intended by everyone!

~~~
milesf
It's all good :) I'm simply stating my opinion, and I'll hold to it. Profanity
and anger are not two "qualities" I look for in people, either as co-workers
or friends. I'm not saying I will not work with or be friends with people who
swear, but it is simply a red flag for me.

~~~
taeric
Nothing wrong with red flags. Just remember to question your own flags
periodically. And try not to let any one dominate decisions. My guess would be
that it becomes easier to deceive people that have stuck to a given rubric for
a long time.

I think of it as periodic regularization. Though, easier said than done.

~~~
milesf
Of course, which is why they're called flags, not judgements or decisions. I
do have friends who swear all the time. They know I don't, but that's my
choice not theirs. When I catch those friends censoring themselves around me,
I remind them that I "want them to just be themselves around me".

------
lifeviacoffee
title should be "Frankly, Do We Give a Damn? Study Finds Link Between
Profanity and Perceived Honesty"

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
The question part was fine to drop, but removing the word "perceived"
substantially changes the claim.

~~~
tylaw
The word "perceived" was not in the article title, and thus the claim is
unchanged... whether the article title is accurate or not is open for debate
:)

------
geomark
I like how comedian Jerry Seinfeld put it: "If you have to use profanity in a
joke then you failed to nail it." Applies to other things as well. It may be a
(crude) indication of honesty, but it is a clear indication of failure.

~~~
imesh
Yeah but here is the thing about Jerry,he is the only clean comic who is funny
at all. Outside of him almost all the great comedians will throw a fuck or a
shit in there. Dave Chappelle and Louie CK are far from failures.

~~~
redshirtrob
Bob Newhart would like a word with you. Specifically, as a one-sided phone
conversation.

