Study: Swearing relieves pain

That muttered or shouted curse that comes out after you bang your thumb or stump your toe may actually help you deal with the pain.

A new study found that swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared to not swearing. According to LiveScience , 64 undergraduate volunteers took part in an experiment that tested their ability to tolerate pain by immersing their hand in icy water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word. Then the cold experiment was done again but with participants repeating a neutral word.

Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word.

"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study.

About the study, Scientific American writes that there is a catch: the more one swears, the less effect the word has. Stephens concurred that the more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become.

The results of the study are detailed in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal NeuroReport .