5 Benefits of Harsh Words According to Research
According to research, if you are doing intense exercise, speaking harshly can help you gain strength than if you use the words “neutral.”
This study also found that people who said harshly while squeezing a hand vice made them squeeze harder and longer.
Saying harsh words doesn’t just help your body. If your finger is caught in the car door, your pain may decrease if you say “sh * t” but “shoot.”
Another study also found that people who spoke harshly when they dipped their hands in ice water felt less pain and were able to hold their hands in the water longer than those who said neutral words.
“The key message is that speaking harshly helps you deal with pain,” said the study’s lead author and psychologist Richard Stephens, in an interview with CNN.
Stephens is a senior lecturer at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, where he heads the Psychobiology Research Laboratory.
Stephens says it works like this: Cursing generates a stress response that initiates the body’s ancient defense reflex. Adrenaline increases heart rate and breathing, preparing muscles to fight or run.
Along with that, there is another physiological reaction called the analgesic response, which makes the body more resistant to pain.
“It would make evolutionary sense because you would be a better fighter and a better runner if you were not slowed down by worrying about pain,” said Stephens.
“So it seems that by speaking harshly you trigger an emotional response in you, which triggers a mild stress response, which is accompanied by a reduction in pain from stress,” he adds.
However, be careful if you wish to prolong your exercise by using a rant.
Research has also found that harsh words lose power when you feel too much pain.
Indeed, some of us speak more harsh words than others such as those who are more afraid of pain called “catastrophizers.”
According to Stephens, a person who has catastrophizers is someone who might have a minor wound and think that it is life threatening and will die from that minor wound.
“The study found that men who had less disasters seemed to benefit from harsh words, while men who had higher disasters did not. It was no different with women,” explains Stephens.
4. Speaking harsh words is a sign of creativity
Speaking harsh words appears to be centered on the right side of the brain, the part of the brain often called the “creative brain.”
“We know that patients who have a stroke on the right side tend to be less emotional, less able to understand and tell jokes, and they tend to stop swearing even when they swore before,” says Emma Byrne, author of “Swearing Is Good for You.”
Research on harsh words began in the Victorian era when doctors discovered that patients who lost the ability to speak were still able to speak harsh words.
“They said harshly very fluently,” said Byrne. “Childhood reprimands, harsh words, and affectionate terms – words with strong emotional content that are learned early tend to be stored in the brain even when all our language is lost.”