Your grandma might not want to hear this, but psychologists have discovered that swearing has both physical and mental health benefits. Dr. Richard Stephens’ curiosity was sparked when he observed that swearing and pain tend to go together – an observation we have likely all made (Mills, 2025).
People stub their toe, they swear. People hit their head, they swear. People trip, they swear. Etc! For Dr. Stephens, the question was, why? #1: Is it possible that swearing helps humans tolerate pain? #2: Does swearing make people stronger?
In order to explore question #1, Dr. Stephens created a study where participants were told to dip one of their hands into ice cold water and to repeat either a swear word or a neutral word. Consistently, people who repeated a swear word kept their hand in the frosty water for more time. In other words, individuals who utilized a swear word demonstrated higher pain tolerance. The answer to question #1 therefore appears to be that swearing does help humans tolerate pain (Mills, 2025).
In an effort to look into question #2, Dr. Stephens set up a few studies to examine the relation between swearing and physical performance: participants took part in the Wingate test (cycling for thirty seconds against a very strong load), the hand grip task, and the chair push up task. Results showed that people performed each of these activities either with more strength or for more time when repeating a swear word. The answer to question #2 therefore also seems to be yes – swearing does make people stronger (Mills, 2025).
For Dr. Stephens the question soon became, how does swearing produce these effects? It turns out that the autonomic nervous system – fight or flight response – is activated when someone curses (Stapeleton et al., 2022). Specifically, more sweating is linked to more swearing (Stapeleton et al., 2022). While part of the explanation for these effects is therefore likely autonomic arousal, Dr. Stephens has observed swearing effects in the absence of this; there are other things happening in the brain when people curse that have yet to be discovered (Mills, 2025). Right now, researchers are also working to understand the psychology behind the benefits observed so far.
The Disinhibition Hypothesis explains that swearing allows people to defy the constraints of society, even if it is just for a brief moment (Mills, 2025). In other words, swearing disinhibits people! Dr. Stephens explains that being in a disinhibited state can help humans to achieve the aforementioned advantageous states, but can also be useful in any situation where someone wants to be disinhibited; for example, it might be helpful to engage in an – ideally private – swearing warmup routine before speaking in public (Mills, 2025).
Your grandma might be validated to know that swearing too much results in habituation: participants who said they swear more in everyday life experienced less benefits in the pain studies than people who said they swear less often in everyday life (Mills, 2025). Just something to keep in mind! But the next time you are working out or are preparing for a presentation, consider what swearing could do for you.
References:
Mills, K. (Host). (2025, April). The psychology of swearing, with Richard Stephens, PhD (No. 327) [Audio podcast episode]. In Speaking of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/swearing
Stapleton, K., Fägerston, K., Stephens, R., Loveday, C. (2022). The power of swearing: what we know and what we don’t. Lingua, 277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2022.103406
