I thought today’s blog post was a pretty interesting one. It turns out that people who swear/curse often may be smarter and have a higher verbal intelligence. Dropping F–bombs doesn’t mean you have a bad vocabulary after all.
Now don’t get me wrong, I believe curse words have their time and place. You certainly don’t want to go parading around cursing people out and using such words around children or certain family members, but using them doesn’t make you any less of a person than someone who doesn’t use them.
Don’t you hate it when you miss your f—ing train, or when your friend acts like a complete a–hole at a party? How about when you lose your keys — ain’t that a b–ch? Hearing someone use swear words may bother you, or even suggest to you that they’re less verbally intelligent. If that’s the case, however, then you may be surprised by the results of a new study published in Language Sciences. According to the research, a lack of verbal fluency has nothing to do with how often people use profanity.
Dr. Timothy Jay, of the Department of Psychology at Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts and author of the study, wanted to dispel the idea that people who swear do so because they have a bad vocabulary. He cited one study that found people who used profanity were rated lower in terms of socio-intellectual status than people who were more restrained. “It’s part of your emotional intelligence to know how and when to use these words. If you’re thinking about it from a moral perspective, you’re missing how common and normal it is. Everybody knows this language,” he said.
In Jay’s study, being fluent in “taboo” words was positively associated with other measures of verbal fluency, debunking the common myth about taboo words. “People who use taboo words understand their expressive nature and nuanced distinctions, implying the presence of more apt linguistic skill.” Not to mention other studies have found swear words can double as a pain reliever.
I don’t know about you, but a curse word or two…mmm or three or four just seems necessary at times. Actually, I like to think of them as sentence enhancers. Come onnnnn, we all do it! Now we can feel a little bit better now knowing that it actually makes us smarter as a people!
No? Still not buying it? Well that’s fine. Not everyone is into cursing and that’s totally fine! Don’t worry, you’re still smart. Trust me, I wrote this post knowing it wouldn’t resonate with everyone, especially most moms and dads of the world. *cough, cough* But hey, maybe now we can stop with the potty mouth/soap jokes?
Because really, us “swear-word-users” are pretty darn smart 😉
Source: Jay T, Jay K. Taboo Word Fluency and Knowledge of Slurs and General Pejoratives: Deconstructing The Poverty-Of-Vocabulary Myth. Language Sciences. 2015.
Well, I’m known for swearing and told I’m a sailor but I think I’m more like a pirate! Lol…