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