If Swearing is Helpful, Should I Do It?

By Heather Koerner

According to a new study by British researchers, using obscene words can actually help reduce pain.

Time reports that psychologists from Keele University performed an experiment where college students were asked to stick their hands into buckets of ice water and endure the pain for several minutes. One group was allowed to repeat a curse word of their choice. The other group had to repeat a control word -- "such as that which might be used to describe a table."

The result?

"... swearing not only allowed students to withstand the discomfort longer, but also reduced their perception of pain intensity. Curse words, the study found, help you cope."
The scientists suggest that perhaps swearing triggers the body's fight-or-flight response and that it results from a "very primitive reflex that evolved in animals" (like a dog's yelp when his tail is stepped on).

Interesting. I get the dog-yelp analogy (though, admittedly, I don't get why they automatically assume the yelps "evolved"). When I stub a toe or knock my hip on a table, I certainly have an immediate urge to let out a yell. But "Oooowwwwwww, that really, really, really hurt" seems to work just fine.

I've birthed two children without anesthetic. Not a superhuman feat, I grant you, but I will put it up there with putting your hand in an ice bucket. And while being forced to repeat descriptive words about a table while laboring would have probably highly annoyed me, I don't recall feeling a primordial need to swear.

But let's just say, for argument's sake, that it did help. That swearing did absolutely and definitively reduce pain. Even then, should believers do it?

The Bible is full of directives and principles about our speech. We're to honor the name of our Lord. James reminds us that a believer should "keep a tight rein on his tongue." And praising God and cursing men with the same tongue? "My brothers, this should not be!" We're told not to let unwholesome talk come out of our mouths.

So, can cussing ever qualify as wholesome talk? Because "cuss" words differ from country to country, does that mean that they are "only words"?

In the Time article, Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, recommends that we not overuse swear words in our speech or writing. "That's not because I'm a prude, but because it blunts [swear words] of their power when you do need them. You should save them for just the right occasions."

For believers, are there any right occasions?

HT: Boundless Line