How many times have you been told by your parents that if you swear, your mouth would be washed with soap and water. As growing children, we have been taught time and again to stop swearing and cussing. Invariably we have been also taught to assume and stereotype people who swear as uneducated but you’ll be surprised that it is quite the contrary.
According to research and recent studies, potty mouths and those who let fly their “Effs” and B’s in different languages are actually a lot smarter than you think.
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Millions of people worldwide have the notion that those who constantly swear every now and then have no knowledge of the English vocabulary except what they filthy mouths spew every minute. Their lack of intelligence restricts them from expressing disappointments and frustration in any other way besides profanity.
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But now comes along the experts like Timothy Jay of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Kristin Joy of Marist College who completely disagree.
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According to their research, those who repeated use words that are taboo are actually very fluent in your everyday monotonous or neutral words. ‘People who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately,’ said the researchers. Christian Bale is a regular potty mouth.
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The researchers feel that such people who swear with the ability to make nuanced distinction possess more linguistic knowledge rather than less which were perceived earlier.
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One more study that made the use of technology tested thousands of statuses on Facebook looking for people who repeatedly used swearing and cussing to express mistrust and deception. Now, this is the biggest surprise of your life. The study found that those who swore and cussed were much more honest than those who didn’t.
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This means swear and #$%^^&&@# all you want because it is a sign of intelligence and honesty. The research also said that those who cuss and swear express themselves more comfortably and feel less stressed out. They are also being more sincere and genuine in comparison to those who avoid swearing.
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Further research from the University of Cambridge, Hong Kong University, Stanford and Maastricht University also found how those who used cuss words and sworn were more honest people. How did they find out?
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This was the Facebook study that observed 73, 789 people on Facebook while 276 people were observed in a lab. The level of profanity was measured by scores against an integrity index for every US state. The study concluded “a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level”.
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Cambridge Professor David Stillwell, Co-author of the study said that The main thing we found is if you filter your language when speaking then you’re probably also filtering what you’re saying as well. You are less likely to be about what you think and more about what you think other people want to hear.”
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He also said that those who do not filter their language will naturally swear and is most likely to speak something true which is indicative and expressive of an honest and genuine perspective.
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There are even more studies who justify their findings saying that innocent suspects in criminal cases are more likely to abuse and swear than guilty ones who deny allegations and accusations. Swearing in a testimony is actually a sign of credibility.
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Swearing can de-stress you in certain ways especially like if you hit your toe against a door, you vent your frustration. Dropping the F-word in front of people??? You can simply say you were expressing an honest opinion or rather an expression. It’s all science, although abusing family and loved ones, science or not, it should never be done.
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There are several celebrities who swear a lot in real life but some are true potty mouths like Gordon Ramsey, Adele, Kirsten Stewart, Angelina Jolie, Mel Gibson, Megan Fox, James Mcavoy, Amy Schumer and Jason Bateman. There could be many more.
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