For a long time, psychologists believed that swearing would make physical pain feel worse, thanks to a cognitive distortion known as catastrophizing or leaping to the conclusion that the bad thing that is currently happening is the worst thing that could ever happen. But Richard Stephens, a psychologist and author of Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad, wondered why then, is swearing such a common pain response? So Stephens somehow convinced 67 of his students at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, to stick their hand in ice-cold water for as long as they could stand. They actually had to do this twice, once while swearing and once while not. Results showed that when they were swearing, the volunteers could keep their hands in the water nearly 50 percent longer as when they used their non-cursing words. Plus, if they were cussing, the volunteers’ heart rates went up and their perception of the pain went down. Simply put, the volunteers felt less pain when they used profanity.
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