

Profanity Helps One Tolerate Physical Pain Better - fiaz
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=profanity-bleeps-physical-pain-09-07-13

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gjm11
The note at the start says "This is an exact transcript of this podcast". The
actual content is full of "@$#%!" and suchlike. So does the speaker in the
podcast say things like "Holy at-sign dollar hash percent exclamation mark"?

An article about the same research at the researcher's university --
[http://keeleuniversitypressoffice.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/s...](http://keeleuniversitypressoffice.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/swearing/)
\-- is more specific about what sorts of word the subjects were allowed to use
in the two conditions. It wasn't that they were "only allowed to use more
socially acceptable words" in the no-swearing condition; more specifically,
they were asked to use "a more commonplace word that they would use to
describe a table". The abstract of the paper says "a neutral word".

So, in particular, it isn't that subjects were having to expend mental energy
thinking up socially acceptable expletives :-).

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chaosmachine
_So does the speaker in the podcast say things like "Holy at-sign dollar hash
percent exclamation mark"?_

They use a bunch of "funny bleeping sounds" in the podcast.

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calcnerd256
from [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-
we-s...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-swear)
"There is a catch, though: The more we swear, the less emotionally potent the
words become, Stephens cautions. And without emotion, all that is left of a
swearword is the word itself, unlikely to soothe anyone's pain."

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benatkin
That's exactly what I thought of when I read the headline.

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scott_s
Ironically swearing when talking about swearing falls flat, always.

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frankus
Sounds like a nomination for an Ig Nobel is in order.

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onreact-com
That explains hard core hip hop.

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viggity
So when I sing along, I'm really just dulling the pain that such music exists.

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TheSOB88
Seems more of a "I want to do this thing, therefore if I do it, I'll feel
slightly better" sort of thing. I mean, people get accustomed to cussing. I
sure feel better when I get the urge to do it and can actually do it.

