I swear this will be a good talk

[Music]

all right

well

let’s start with a show of hands

who here has ever let out a swear word

in a very embarrassing or inappropriate

situation

all right all right let’s say

in front of an audience

maybe a moment that was being recorded

perhaps a presentation that you’ve been

preparing for for

months

don’t worry i’m not going to do it

though i have certainly done so in the

past and clearly so have most of you

appreciate the honesty

honestly though i love swearing and not

just as an activity but as an incredibly

fascinating part of language

swearing is a beautiful complex system

that has interested me for years now

so this afternoon

let me give you a brief introduction

to the science of swearing

and the power of profanity

first of all

i think we all have a decent sense of

what swearing or cursing or profanity

means but

for this talk i’m defining it as the use

of language that that is considered to

be taboo in some way

often related to strong emotions

we all swear

and by that i mean we all

swear

swearing is considered to be a universal

phenomenon

meaning that in pretty much every

language we know of

swearing is present in some form

from culture to culture

we all come up with bad words

this could mean that swearing

is a fundamental part of language or how

we create it

or at least the natural consequence of

being able to communicate with one

another

swearing is universal but it is also

weird

as soon as you start thinking about it

at more than just a surface level

you will start finding these little

tidbits of how strange and wonderful

this part of our language really is

how

weird is it that we’ve invented this

part of language that we’re specifically

not supposed to use

that is one of many questions one might

have and i hope to answer part of it for

you today by focusing on the power that

swearing has

how it affects us

and how swearing is the language that

goes beyond language

so

is swearing a part of language

the obvious answer is

yeah

duh

except

there’s evidence that in the brain

it is also separated from normal

language use

in cases of aphasia

where a person loses their ability to

speak or produce language due to dame

brain damage

patients can often still swear quite

fluently

and this shows us that there is some

separation in the process of

normal language

and swearing

it’s thought to lie in it swearing being

a fairly automatic process

something perhaps paralleled by the

uncontrolled outbursts of inappropriate

language

found in tourette’s syndrome

swearing really goes beyond just

language in terms of how it affects us

when we hear or use it

profanity is intimately connected to our

emotions

if i ask you to think of a situation

that you’re likely to swear in

i’m sure most of you are coming up with

situations of high emotional intensity

this is reflected in surveys where the

majority of swearing is attributed to

either

anger or frustration

but also humor sarcasm surprise and pain

play a role

the difference between

this single word from very negative to

very positive can express such a broad

range of intense emotions

and these emotions are certainly

conveyed

it can be upsetting to hear swear words

why else would they be banned and

bleeped out in all kinds of films and tv

shows

and why else would the tedx operations

team have specifically instructed me to

avoid these words despite them being the

core of my topic here today

and research does show that there is a

strong emotional effect from hearing

swear words comparing to other neutral

and negative words to the point where

this can be measured in your body

if you are experiencing strong emotions

your skin

gets better at conducting electricity

because of the activity of some sweat

glands kind of gross

and

yeah the effect the reaction that we

have to hearing profanity is intense

enough to be measured in this way in our

fingertips

so

the effect of hearing swearing

is measurable in our bodies

but the effect of the act of swearing

also extends from our minds to our

bodies

in some very powerful ways

if you’re stumbling around in the dark

and you hit your little toe on some

furniture

or

is a pretty classic response

turns out that that has a purpose

it is a pretty well established effect

that swearing increases our pain

tolerance

the classic experiment demonstrating

this

involves participants sticking their

hand into some icy water

and measuring how long they could keep

it there before the pain got too much

they were allowed to either swear

or shout out a neutral word with similar

intensity

now

like any good aspiring scientist would i

tried this out on myself

and in both this self-experimentation

as well as actual controlled scientific

studies

it was found that

people who were allowed to swear

lasted much longer in the experiment

and also reported experiencing less pain

this effect has been demonstrated across

cultures

including ones with very different

attitudes to swearing

really showing just how much power

these little short words have over our

bodies and our experience of the world

now

in an ideal world i’d ramble on about

this for another 30 or 40 minutes

however i did

swear

that this would be a good ted talk and

not a ted lecture

but in the time that i had i think i’ve

been able to go through some really cool

stuff with you

i’ve been able to share with you some of

the ways in which swearing separates

itself from normal language use

through the lens of the powerful effects

it can have on us

so

how weird is it that we’ve invented this

part of language that we’re specifically

not supposed to use

not so weird when it’s taboo-ness is

what drives this reaction of shock

and emotion

that allows us to push through pain but

also show that we are in pain or at

least experiencing some other form of

strong emotion that we want to share

i hope i have been able to rouse your

interest in this niche little field

and i hope more than anything that the

next time you hear someone swear

or when you’re the culprit

you think of me

of all the wonderful things i’ve told

you and take a minute to appreciate the

beauty and the complexity in this most

powerful way of communicating

thank you

[Applause]

you