Psychologists Kristin Joy and Timothy Jay say that people who regularly swear are more likely to be smarter than those who don’t swear. Moreover, they are more honest and more fluent in mundane words.
Ever since we were growing up, we were told that swearing is bad. Swearing is still seen as a rude and inappropriate thing nowadays, and we are taught to be careful to not swear, especially not in public.
There is still a social stereotype that sees those who curse and swear as uneducated and ignorant. However, this is not true according to one psychological study. It seems that potty mouths are a lot smarter than you think.
Many people would listen to a person swearing, and they will assume that he/she doesn’t know how to express properly with words because he/she lacks intelligence and education.
However, psychologists Kristin Joy from Marist College and Timothy Jay from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts disagree with this assumption.
In their study, they found out that people who use a lot swear words are actually more fluent in neutral, mundane words.
‘People who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately,’ the researchers wrote. ‘The ability to make nuanced distinction indicates the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge.’
Moreover, they conducted a Facebook study in which they analyzed over 1,000 facebook statuses which contained curse words in them. They found a direct correlation between the use of swear words and honesty. Meaning, those who used curse words in their statuses were more honest in expressing their opinions.
Plus, researchers found that people who cursed regularly were more comfortable expressing their feelings and thoughts thus being more genuine as opposed to those who didn’t curse and were seen as reserved.
Even more so, in criminal cases when suspects were interrogated, studies have found that those who were innocent were more likely to curse. Guilty ones, on the other hand, were trying to mask themselves and remain calm.
All in all, swearing is not a bad thing! Next time, when someone accuses you of being inappropriate when slipping some F-words – you tell them that you are not inappropriate but honest and smart! You have the science to back you up.
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Mary Wright is a professional writer with more than 10 years of incessant practice. Her topics of interest gravitate around the fields of the human mind and the interpersonal relationships of people.If you have a general question or comment please fill out the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible https://curiousmindmagazine.com/contact-us/ .