F*** Pain

Although my mother tried very hard to discourage the use of foul language, somewhere along the line I picked up a few bad words. But I’m not alone. Swearing, the use of obscene or profane language, has been a part of human culture for a long time.

Some people develop a habitual use of profane language through exposure to certain music and lifestyles. Many comedians of our time rely on profane language to add a shock value to their material.  But for most people, all it takes to transform a well-spoken individual into a foul-mouthed son-of-a-gun is a bump on the noggin or a hammer to the thumb. 

Almost everybody lets a few four letter words fly during painful events. But the string of expletives accompanying that injury might be more than just an expression of frustration; it may in fact be a mechanism for reducing our perception of that pain. At least that’s what researchers from Keele University in the UK believe they have found through their recent study.

Pain is more complicated than that last fall down the stairs would lead one to believe. We perceive pain differently based on a variety of criteria: attention state, emotional state, suggestions, sensory information and even time of day (our nerves vary in sensitivity based on our body’s natural clock). If a string of swearwords would alter any of these factors, then it just might have an impact on how we perceive pain. 

The study, performed by the psychology department, examined pain perception and tolerance using a cold pressor test (essentially submerging a hand in ice water). Before the experiment, participants were asked for “five words you might give when hitting your thumb with a hammer” and “five words to describe a table” as a control.  With their hand submerged, the subjects were asked to repeat either the first curse word on their hammer list or the word in the corresponding position from their table list, in the same volume, while holding their hand in the ice water for as long as they could. 

Surprisingly (well, the authors were surprised by this), people were able to hold their hand in the freezing water for longer periods of time if they used curse words as a mantra than if they repeated table descriptors. Those who swore also had an elevated heart rate compared to those who used normal vocab. Both effects were more dramatic in females, whose change in pain tolerance and change in heart rate were slightly more than for males. So why would a mere change in word choice have such a profound effect on perception?

The authors propose that swearing may alleviate pain through a number of mechanisms. Swearing tends to conjure negative emotions, which some studies have shown to lessen pain. Perhaps this swearing is increasing our aggression, like a drill sergeant cussing out new troops. Cursing may also break the link between fear of pain and perceived pain — that is people who believe that something is going to hurt generally feel more pain. Or maybe swearing elicits some sort of fear, initiating part of the fight or flight response and causing an increase in heart rate.

It seems hard to believe that a choice in words could change our perception so profoundly. Indeed, with such a mysterious mechanism at work, we should be cautious in our interpretation of the results of this study. Either way, I’ll feel a little better next time I have a fit of cursing after an accident. 

Questions and comments: andrewhaynie2009@u.northwestern.edu