Swearing f***ing sorts out your emotional distress

Scientists believe effing and jeffing is necessary for some people to let off steam.

Swearing has been found to relieve emotional distress, among those feeling particularly wound up.

Before you say 'No s**t Sherlock', it doesn't work across the board so f-ing and blinding during your performance review is only appropriate if it's going really very badly already.

Scientists at the Massey University School of Psychology, New Zealand, claim that it alleviates heart ache and social anxiety as well.

The relief works on short term social stress. Such as an argument with a partner or when you're being excluded.

The work, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology (2017), was co-authored by Michael C. Philipp and Laura Lombardo.

Methodology

The study's 62 participants were asked to recall a time of social exclusion and write it down.

Control groups were then asked to repeat either a neutral word or a swear word for 2 minutes.

Accordingly the group that was allowed to eff and jeff reported that their stress levels had been attenuated.

Better than a back rub

The study also found that swearing relieves physical pain.

It seems that swearing after you stub your toe isn't just theatrics - well, probably still is a bit.

It's also a way for you to distract yourself from the agony.

Moreover, the control group that was allowed to swear reported feeling less physical pain about the memory.

The paper's abstract states that:

The findings suggest that social and physical pain are functionally similar and that swearing attenuates social pain.

HT Medical Express

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