Curse instead of holding back and biting through? According to study, verbal anger can actually help during exercise. Those who shout swear words stay strong and focused longer. Scientists explain why the brain switches to performance.
Darn and sewn up! Such curses and worse ones do not have a good reputation in everyday language. But that could change – at least scientists from Great Britain provide good arguments for it in a recent study. According to this, swearing can increase physical performance, as the group from the British University of Keele and the University of Alabama in Huntsville writes in the journal “American Psychologist”.
The researchers had a total of 192 participants perform so-called chair push-ups in two experiments. Every two seconds they were asked to repeat a word – in one experiment a swear word of their choice, in the other experiment a neutral word. “Fuck” and “Shit” were particularly popular, the authors said when asked.
The result: Those test subjects who occasionally swore were able to maintain their body weight significantly longer than those who occasionally said neutral terms. This confirms previous research in which people who cursed were able to hold their hand in ice-cold water for longer.
“These findings help to understand why swearing is so common,” said study author Richard Stephens from the University of Keele, according to a statement. “Cursing is literally a calorie-free, non-drug, inexpensive and readily available tool available to us when we need a performance boost.”
People act more self-indulgently and impulsively
After the sports exercises, the study participants were asked about their state of mind – for example, how funny they found the situation in the experiment, how confident they felt, how distracted they were and whether they experienced positive emotions. It was also recorded to what extent the test subjects reached a so-called “flow” state – i.e. a concentrated, positive state.
The team wanted to understand the psychological mechanisms behind better physical performance. Their hypothesis: Swearing puts people in a kind of disinhibited state in which they act more licentiously and impulsively.
They were able to confirm a connection for some of the characteristics with which the researchers defined this condition: “Flow”, distraction and self-confidence are actually relevant mediators for the fact that swearing people achieve higher sporting performance, the authors write. When it comes to humor, however, no connection could be proven.
How do curse words work in other fields?
“In many situations, people hold back – consciously or unconsciously – from using their full power,” said researcher Stephens: “Swearing is an accessible way to help yourself stay focused and confident, become less distracted, and step up your game.”
In the next step, the team wants to expand its research on swearing into other fields and find out whether the effect can also be exploited in professional challenges or even in interpersonal situations. “Our labs are currently studying how swearing affects public speaking and romantic behavior, two situations in which people tend to hesitate or second-guess themselves,” said co-author Nicholas Washmuth of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
dpa/SUF
