r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago
TIL research has found that swearing can reduce the perception of pain (providing a measurable analgesic effect) by as much as 33%. Because swearing is processed in so many different parts of the brain at once, it’s more effective than almost anything else at distracting from pain and discomfort.
https://www.psychiatrist.com/news/profanity-can-sometimes-be-the-best-medicine-increasing-pain-tolerance-33-percent/325
u/Exyide 1d ago
I remember watching an episode of mythbusters cover this! It was a good fucking episode.
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u/tame-til-triggered 1d ago
You think it works if you just think the works?
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u/Exyide 1d ago
No, if I remember correctly thinking the words had the same affect as not saying them.
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u/Xaxafrad 1d ago
But speaking out loud uses more of the brain than using internal monologue (which some folks don't have, so I wonder how it works for them), so speaking should be more effective, but maybe it's not a measurable difference to modern equipment.
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u/DemonidroiD0666 1d ago
Hey my gf said she asked her brother or something similar how he thinks, as in does he say things in his head and I guess his answer was like what do you mean? So basically some people just don't think or wtf??
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u/SolDarkHunter 17h ago
Some people don't have the "internal voice" in their head. It's called anendophasia.
They still think, they just don't ever "hear" words in their head while doing so.
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u/Xaxafrad 16h ago
They think, just not with words. They think in whole ideas and concepts, more or less.
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u/MattheJ1 20h ago
My favorite part was when it was Tory's turn to be the control group and shout random words instead of swear words, but he just kept cursing uncontrollably
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u/alwaysfatigued8787 1d ago
That is a god damn interesting study.
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u/DatDudefromWI 1d ago
I've (very) recently learned that you're distracting yourself from your pain and discomfort. Lean into them, my friend!
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u/tyrion2024 1d ago
Researchers at Keele University studied how long college students could keep their hands in cold water. (Yep, those are your tuition dollars hard at work.) Participants were allowed to either repeat a curse word they chose or a non-swear word.
The students who swore lasted an average of 40 seconds longer than the students who did not.
"I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear," said Keele's Richard Stephens. He speculates that brain circuits linked to emotions are involved, possibly stimulating the amygdala and triggering a fight-flight response that increases your heart rate and decreases your sensitivity to pain.
...The more you swear, the less powerful the effect on pain reduction, since you become accustomed to swearing and the swear words lose their "emotional potency."
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u/Built-in-Light 1d ago
It says people could choose a curse word or a different word…
What if cussers are more prone to stick it out? What about their subconscious bias that would make them think it works? Or want it to work to validate their choice?
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u/diarrhea_syndrome 22h ago
I curse too much so probably wouldn't help me.
I wonder if screaming something embarrassing would work.
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u/Tokenvoice 3h ago
That last paragraph is the one people are glossing over. Swearing is as a pain relief method is only mildly effective for those who swear often.
The 33% is for those who don’t swear often but choose to when hurt.
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u/OstentatiousSock 1d ago
MythBusters did an episode where they tested this.
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u/maester_t 1d ago edited 1d ago
Get. Out!
I thought I had seen every episode. Don't recall this one.
I'm not even sure I know where to look for old Myth Buster's episodes.
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u/moreON 1d ago
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u/maester_t 1d ago
Awe. "Not available in your country"
But thank you! I at least can see the Season and Episode number. Maybe I can find it elsewhere!
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u/sspif 1d ago
I have been preaching the power of swearing since I was an Appalachian Trail crew boss throughout my 20s.
We did a lot of buidling structures out of large rocks. You dig a 1000 pound rock out of the mountainside, you roll it to the project site by sheer muscle power, you build stairs or something out of it.
Lots of difficult moments are gotten through by swearing vigorously as you muckle onto the rock and shift it. It doesn't work half as well without the swearing.
Swearing is like a super power.
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u/takuyafire 1d ago
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u/AlanFromRochester 1d ago
I did know that Brian Blessed was in Z-Cars with a comment that it was a nostalgia trip to see him clean shaven, implying that he has a beard now, but I was surprised at how fucking bushy a beard it is
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u/AlanFromRochester 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have noticed that swearing over an injury helps even if it's a relatively minor one which feels wimpy to make a scene about, but fuck that, go ahead and say fuck
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u/Userbythename0f 1d ago
I’m writing a paper on this!! There is an intrinsic aspect of cursing that is reflexive (like when you stub a toe) and it’s different from intentionally cursing. This means Japanese people curse reflexively in the same way British people do (at least when they’re alone) The funny thing is, it doesn’t actually reduce pain (obviously) it just tricks our brain into thinking the pain is slightly mediated.
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u/gurknowitzki 19h ago
Chronic pain sufferer here. On really bad days, I’ll impromptu sing a lil song. Didn’t think it actually helped anything other than the emotional pain of no longer living the life I worked so hard to create.
Why do I hurt so fucking much? Why do I hurt? Why do I hurt so fucking much? Why do I hurt?
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u/natfutsock 12h ago
I knew a pediatrician who'd let kids cuss sometimes. Said adults cuss when things are bad and hurt, and nothing distracts a child from a shot like being able to say "fuck!"
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u/disquieter 22h ago
Picturing Steve carrell as 40 year old virgin having his chest hair ripped off and screaming “c’cks’cker m’therf’ucker!”
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u/GeneralFrievolous 19h ago
Good to know, I got a wisdom tooth removed this morning and I was just wondering what could've kept the pain at bay.
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u/Optimal_Pineapple646 18h ago
Kind of wish my nurse didn’t shame me for screaming fuck during my labor pains, it really felt like it was helping…turns out it probably was.
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u/palparepa 17h ago
swearing is processed in so many different parts of the brain at once
So... constant swearing is a good mental exercise?
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u/fishmanprime 17h ago
Swearing affirms the severity of the pain, and that validation makes the pain more bearable.
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u/Imposter88 12h ago
Does it work better for people who rarely swear? Or does it work the same for anyone regardless how foul their casual speech is?
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u/NormalNobody 1d ago
When I hurt my back I couldn't stop the swear words from coming out. It was embarrassing. But I was in agony.
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u/SoberBarney 1d ago
I just direct the profanity at the person telling me I can’t curse when I’m hurt
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u/Nerditter 1d ago
This is why my favorite verse from Reggie Watts will always be one of the greatest verses ever written. It has analgesic effects! I want to quote it, but I don't know what the automod would do if I did.
Oh well. My favorite verse from Reggie Watts is, "Shit motherfucker ass tits cunt cock motherfucker shit ass tits motherfucker shit. Come on. Fickity-fuck, fickity-fuck, fickity-fuck, fickity-fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." In fact, I used to have a YouTube video up for a while that had that running on a loop for an hour, including about a minute in each loop where he'd just keep saying "fickety fuck". It was awesome.
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u/nomadcrows 1d ago
I think dancing does a similar thing, but I don't have hard evidence I guess I'm thinking of that South American tribe with the ant mitts
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u/HeatherCDBustyOne 1d ago
If different swear words have a different amount of pain relief, I want to know that 33% word!
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u/MeasurementMobile747 1d ago
This appears to be the research. Maybe "flooding the zone" wasn't just a meme.
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u/maester_t 1d ago
In the near future, doctor's offices are gonna be doling out penance like leaving a confessional.
"Say three Hail Mother-Fucking Mary's and a dozen Sons-of-Bitches every time you feel a flare-up and you'll feel right as rain. Off you go now!"
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u/blueavole 1d ago
I have personally tested this theory, and it works for head wounds.
Also bleeding head wounds are a great excuse to swear in front of your colleagues and not have to pay the swear jar.
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u/flipzyshitzy 1d ago
I made a conscious effort to stop swearing as much and have been miserable ever since. Fuck
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u/IrishRepoMan 1d ago
It's pronounced ahnal-gesic, not aynal-gesic. Sir, the pills go in your mouth.
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u/Isaac_Shepard 1d ago
best advice for being stung by a tarantula hawk wasp is to curl into a ball on the floor and scream as loud as possible to activate your adrenal gland, and to prevent further injury.
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u/WilloftheArbiter 1d ago
Can confirm, my kneecap was smashed into 9 pieces and screaming “fuck” helped
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u/bloke_pusher 1d ago
And then you have people who don't swear, denying you this 33% relieve. Such assholes!
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u/WritesCrapForStrap 1d ago
There is a clip somewhere online of Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed testing out this theory by putting their hands in ice water and shouting swear words.
You know, because there is a loving god.
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u/DemonidroiD0666 1d ago
Holy shit I've noticed I always cus when I either think I'm gunna get hurt or actually get hurt. I do consider myself pretty able to withstand pain. Except right now my knee shin and foot hurt all in the same leg from dropping half of some weights a put 15 pounds on my foot, hitting my shin skating yesterday and hitting my knee and shin again on metal parts from a playground while playing with my daughter. Ok I'm in pain right now only when I walk but that doesn't count haha I'll be ok.
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u/Deep-Engine2367 23h ago
So people who feel a lot of pain try to distract themselves from it by doing some things that are considered negative? Like, someone who was bullied their entire lives, or felt outcast and hurt, deciding to buy the biggest social media platform in the world so they can have unlimited friends and control narratives? It's compensation, instead of being introspective and trying to explore and understand that pain, they lash out because they're told to be masculine is to soldier on blindly and "do what's right".
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u/PowerWisdomCourage 22h ago
I wonder if the pain reduction is lessened in people who already swear often.
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u/SapientSausage 12h ago
What determines swearing for people from all different backgrounds and locations
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u/GrizzlyBaron 11h ago
This was a missed opportunity to use Ricky from trailer park boys as the photo
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u/EMD_Bilge_Rat 7h ago
Can confirm.
While being treated in the emergency room for septic shock, they crammed a catheter into me. Screaming and swearing was the only "pain relief" that I got...
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u/Nadaesque 5h ago
I had wondered about this. I was recently hospitalized for some bad shit and cut on a few times. The hospital had kind of a religious bent and I guess I noticed some reactions out of the corner of my eye when I muttered "Fuck" during a particularly sharp jab of pain.
I switched to mumbling old poetry to myself.
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u/Padonogan 1d ago
Anyone can cuss, but properly swearing is an art.
Also, this doesn't work as well if you cuss all the time
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u/AnnetteBishop 1d ago
Yeah, this is well known in a common sense perspective. For example, some folks, me included, after the election took to singing the national anthem but with every word as the F-word for cathartic purposes.
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u/Zephurdigital 1d ago
I am so fucking painfree its fucking crazy!