Let's curse for less pain

wang fangqing

15 years ago

Categories: Health & Science

Let’s curse for less pain

Don’t feel guilty when you curse, especially after you get hurt because scientists assure that you will feel less pain by swearing.

It’s not a joke. The new study conducted by researchers from the school of psychology at Britain’s Keele University and published in journal NeuroReport, shows cursing could increase pain tolerance and heart rate, thus decrease the feeling of pain.

Richard Stephens, one of the researcher, told Reuters that the trigger for the study is to figure out why swearing is a historical,universal human linguistic phenomenon.

64 volunteers participated the experiment, which required them to put their hands in a tube of ice water as long as possible till they started to curse. Then they were asked to repeat the experiment but with moderate language. The researchers found swearing made volunteers tolerate ice water longer.

The reason? Not clear yet, but what is clear, said Stephens, is that "swearing elicits both an emotional response and a physical one, too. This response could shed light on why the age-old practice of cursing developed, and still is in existence today

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wang fangqing: Wang Fangqing is a Shanghai-based freelance business reporter. She writes about business in emerging markets in Asia. Previously She'd been working in textile and flavor industries with Japanese companies for over six years. She is fluent in Chinese, Japanese and English.