Swear words in everyday life appear a somewhat concerning,
though almost essential occurrence. As most people can attest to, these choice
expletives serve a variety of functions, from expressing anger, reacting to
injury, promoting aggressiveness, or simply emphasizing a point. Taboo language is a widely and
passionately discussed topic, often in terms of censorship and minimizing its
negative impact. However, conversations in the scientific community focus on
the evolutionary and biological development of swearing, and interestingly on its
positive impact. A blog post titled "The Science of Swearing" suggests
that swear words can achieve a number of desirable outcomes, such as joking or
storytelling, stress management, group cohesion, or as a replacement for potential
physical aggression.
With this multi-faceted approach to swear words, an
interesting question remains: how has swearing become associated with
differences between males and females. Sex differences in swear words have been
reported across cultures and over time. In general, males use more frequent and
more forceful obscene language than females. A review conducted by Ginsburg et
al. (2003) gives an overview of past research conducted on sex differences in
vulgar language, in terms of types of usage, attributions and perceptions, and
why these sex differences occur.[1] They explain that there are several theories accounting for why males may swear
more than females. Evolutionarily, profanity may have originally been used
during male combat as a means to shock and awe opponents. Additionally, it may
contribute to destructive aggressive and sexual urges in males. Comparatively,
from a socialization perspective, females may be taught to use more polite and
less forceful words, thus swearing less.
Studies on neurolinguistic perspectives on swearing have
also contributed to knowledge of sex differences. A study by Lancker and
Cummings (1999) found that use of expletives is increased in adults with Gilles
de la Tourette syndrome (GTS), a condition estimated to have a 9:1 male to
female sex ratio.[2] Further studies of the physiological impact
of swearing on the brain have revealed some important insights. A different
blog with the same title "The Science of Swearing"
describes that our brains are hard-wired to react to taboo words. The amygdala,
an emotion-processing center in the brain is activated in response to reading a
swear word. A potential explanation for
this might be that swearing can communicate strong emotions better than
non-taboo words. A sociocultural sex difference explanation relating to this
could be that males are encouraged to swear to release feelings of anger and
aggression while females are taught to suppress these emotions.
In addition, a fascinating role of swearing can actually be
to lessen the effects of physical pain. A study conducted by Richard Stephens
and Claudia Umland[3] in 2011 asked participants to stick their hand into freezing cold water and
repeat either a favorite expletive or a neutral word. Perhaps unsurprisingly
for anyone who’s ever smashed their toe into a piece of furniture, swearing
increased pain tolerance and heart rate compared to not swearing. This study
also examined sex differences between subjects. As shown in the figure below,
in comparison between swearing and not swearing, males showed slightly greater
differences in pain tolerance and heart rate increase compared to females.
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Taken together, these findings on sex differences in swear
words present several interesting implications. Since the literature on the
neurological differences between men and women in swearing is relatively sparse,
speculation is far more prevalent than definitive conclusions at this time. A
clear finding is that males appear to swear more than females, as evidenced by
attributions and stereotypes in society. However the primary inconclusive debate concerns whether this difference is due to biological factors, sociocultural
learning, or a combination of the two. One biological possibility, considering
the clear relationship between swearing and aggression, and higher levels of
aggression in males, is that prenatal exposure to androgens and higher levels
of testosterone are the mediating factors that contribute to both increased
swearing and aggression in males. As Ginsburg suggests, the cultural
universality of greater male expletive language suggests some sort of
biological predisposition. Of course, cultural norms and rules certainly
contribute to exaggerate these differences by inflicting harsher societal penalties
on females for swearing than males.
The bottom line of the science of swearing appears to be
that regardless of male or female, taboo words can actually benefit the speaker
(not suggesting that a child uses this argument in front of their furious
parent after letting an f-bomb fly) but the study of swear words undoubtedly
reveals an interesting and nuanced side of human nature.
References:
[1] Ginsburg, H. J., Ogletree, S. M., & Silakowski, T.
D. 2003. Vulgar language: Review of sex differences in usage, attributions, and
pathologies. North American Journal of
Psychology, 5, 105-116.
[2]
Lancker, D. V., & Cummings, J. L. 1999. Expletives: Neurolinguistic and
neurobehavioral perspectives on swearing. Brain
Research Reviews, 31, 83-104.
[3]
Stephens, R. & Umland, C. 2011. Swearing as a response to pain- Effect of
daily swearing frequency. The Journal of
Pain, 12, 1274-1281.
Could it even be possible that since society identifies certain words as expletive, men are just more comfortable swearing, because it is more socially acceptable? So that because of the society's expectations of gender-specific language, men are more socially encouraged to use certain words.
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