Profanity and Emotion are Inextricably Entwined – Let Me Show You How

By: Amanda Gillis-Furutaka

Some background to profanity in human communication

First, a little background to this topic, because it is rarely addressed in academic circles or even among friends. Profanities are generally understood to be taboo words and expressions that shock, offend, and hurt. Of course, profanity is expressed not only through words. We use obscene gestures and sign languages have profane signs (Bergen, 2016). These words and gestures express the strongest human emotions. For example, we use them when we feel angry, afraid, surprised, amused, thrilled, and passionate. Profanity can also be used to inflict emotional pain, provoke violent responses, shape minds, and affect judgement. Unsurprisingly, governments, religious leaders, and education boards have often tried to regulate or ban profanity … but it persists.

It is likely that profanity has existed since the dawn of human communication. We have plenty of recorded evidence from Greek and Roman remains and from works of medieval, Renaissance, and more contemporary literature. For a fascinating read on how profanity has changed over the centuries from a focus on religion to body parts, their functions, and excretions, I highly recommend Melissa Mohr’s (2013) Holy Sh*t! A Brief History of Swearing.

How do innocuous words become profane? An interesting example of an English word that has become profane in some places is cock. This word, denoting a male bird, has existed (with various spellings) for millennia, but gradually came to refer only to the farmyard type that crows in the morning (Bergen, 2016, p. 142). Interestingly, the connotation that this word gained over recent centuries (i.e., a part of a human male’s body with no feathers or beak) has produced different reactions in different English-speaking cultures. In the US, the word rooster has now replaced cock when speakers want to be clear that they are referring to a male bird, but this has not happened in the UK, where cock (or possibly cockerel) is still used to refer to a bird, plus its additional associations, and is not deemed offensive enough to be replaced by rooster. This demonstrates how our beliefs about what is and is not profane can vary over the centuries, and from one geographical location to another because, like gender, these beliefs are a social construct.

Mohr (2013) explains how profanity evolves as societies evolve, but what is it that triggers such changes in the level of respectability and the usage of words? Curse words carry an emotional charge that their non-profane equivalents lack (compare cunt with vagina¹). This is because obscene words like cock and cunt have many emotional associations, called connotations, that are automatically activated when we encounter them. Taboo words are used in their non-literal connotative sense to intensify what is said and, because they conjure up these unbidden associations, they access our emotions in ways that non-taboo words do not, creating an emotional impact. For this reason, the emotional impact of profane words can vary from one society to another when taboos in those societies vary. An example of societal differences in the taboo levels of a class of swearwords referred to as slurs was recently brought to my attention when I gave my first presentation on this topic at an academic conference for language teachers. I used the full n-word as an example without meaning to cause offense to anyone, but I was informed afterwards that I should never utter this word when there may be Americans in the audience. As a British national having visited the US only on three brief occasions, I was unaware that Americans are so deeply offended by use of this word.

¹For insights into the emotive power of the c-word in the UK, especially when used by women, read: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/im-with-olivia-colman-if-you-dont-like-us-swearing-you-know-what-to-do-75wdsqtxp

On a lighter note, profanity can also be amusing. Taboo words have been judged to be “humorous” by participants in psychology experiments (Engelthaler & Hills, 2018). Moreover, offensive language is widely used for comic effect in popular entertainment (TV, films, theatre, stand-up comedy) and in daily interactions in all kinds of settings, from workplaces to war zones. Sharing scurrilous connotations seems to build a sense of camaraderie. So, many jokes are based on obscenities. I still remember the first playground joke I heard that taught me the meaning of the f-word when I was in primary school. The fact that I still remember it clearly suggests that this occasion had an emotional impact which has rendered it so memorable—because looking back, although I laughed at the time once I understood, by adult standards, it was not even a good joke.

Profanity is learned in childhood, often in the playground, as was my case, and from family members: “Children acquire language habits such as cursing and name calling by actively participating in these cultural practices” (Jay et al., 2006, p. 7). Teachers and parents admonish and punish inappropriate use of profanity, which alerts children to the strong emotional meaning of the taboo words and adds to the emotional valence of such words. Jay and his co-authors explain that, when curse words are associated with punishment for using them in the minds of children, “they acquire long-lasting emotional connotations (e.g., fear or anxiety)” and that “part of the meaning of a curse word is this classically-conditioned component” (2006, p. 2). Punishment is not only ineffective in preventing children from cursing, but it also increases the emotional power of using forbidden language, and, as we will see below, trying to avoid using it.

For all the above reasons, it is safe to say that profanity has long been an integral part of human communication for users of most of the world’s languages² and it evokes emotional reactions. Next, I will demonstrate that this is because profanity is intertwined with our emotional brain circuitry.

²In some languages, such as Japanese, words that are taboo in many other languages do not have the same shocking connotations. Japanese speakers use tone, intonation, and other means to express their strong feelings.

Ways in which emotion and profanity are inextricably connected in our brains

Let me now explain how profanity is interconnected neurologically with our emotions. I will refer to research done mainly on English speakers and will begin with what we now know about where profane language is stored and processed in our brains. I will then discuss some of the scientifically proven emotional and physical effects of uttering expletives and of trying to inhibit their production. Then I will give some examples of how people react emotionally to the use of profanity by others in ways that may come as a surprise and which we need to be aware of if we are ever called on to produce or evaluate a statement regarding a crime or some other misdemeanor.

Automatic speech, intentional speech, and emotion

Has this ever happened to you? You stub your toe and “f***!” bursts unbidden out of your mouth, or you are walking up a peaceful forest trail when a mountain biker comes hurtling down towards you and inexplicably (because you are not religious) you exclaim “Oh God!” Finding myself in situations like these ignited my fascination with profanity. These words are not part of my daily vocabulary, but I now know that expletives like these, uttered in the heat of an emotional moment, are different from intentional uses of taboo language. These profane outbursts are examples of automatic speech and are encoded differently in the brain from words that are used with intent. We now know this thanks to research on people with aphasia (language impairment caused by damage to specific areas of the brain) who find it difficult or impossible to produce comprehensible words or strings of words. Importantly, some automatic language is preserved—spontaneous interjections like yeah and huh, filler words such as um and well, formulaic expressions, memorized language, and some of the most vulgar expressions in their language (Bergen, 2016).

Study of aphasia has revealed that language operates in a highly structured way in the brain and that different kinds of operations are performed by different parts of the brain. For example, when you hear a word, the inner ear converts the sounds into electrical signals which pass through a chain of specialized areas in your brain until they reach the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sounds. Information about the speech sounds that make up the word is extracted and sent to Wernicke’s area (in the left hemisphere of the brain) where the sequence of sounds is associated with meanings. When you want to say a word, the process is thought to begin in Wernicke’s area which enables you to select the word you need to express what you want to say. Signals are then sent to Broca’s area (also located in the left hemisphere) where they are converted into the sounds that need to be produced. When people have damage to Wernicke’s area, they have trouble understanding language and, when they talk, they can produce words that sound correct but the strings of words make no sense. Someone with Broca’s aphasia, however, can use the right words and most of what they say makes sense, but the structure of the words or phrases is not correct, nor is their pronunciation. This makes it very hard for them to produce comprehensible utterances.

Another intriguing consequence of damage to Broca’s area is that different words are affected in different ways. While the most common words become hard to produce, interjections and set phrases, such as how do you do, tend to be preserved, together with expletives. And expletives are used by Broca’s aphasics in moments of emotional intensity. This finding shows that not all language is produced on the same assembly line. When words like fuck, goddammit, and shit are uttered in frustration, they are not generated in Wernicke’s or Broca’s area. We now know that automatic speech is generated in the right hemisphere of most right-handed people. This has been demonstrated by measurements of the relative opening of the left and right sides of the mouth when speaking, and very convincingly through analysis of the results of removing the entire left hemisphere of a patient with brain cancer. This person was no longer able to produce meaningful speech but could utter expletives and curses very clearly (Bergen, 2016, p. 91).

The case of another patient has provided evidence of where the circuitry that generates automatic speech is located. After damage to his right hemisphere, this person was no longer able to sing familiar songs or recite nursery rhymes. He also had been known as an enthusiastic user of profanity, but he could no longer swear spontaneously (Bergen,2016, p. 92). The area of his brain that was damaged was the basal ganglia in his right brain hemisphere, a system of brain structures that play a role in selecting suitable motor actions and inhibiting ones you don’t want to perform. They are closely linked to the emotional centres of the brain. This is only one case study, but it does seem that automatic speech, including spontaneous swearing, is “generated by brain circuits responsible for automatic processes other than language that are tightly linked to emotion centers” (Bergen, 2016, p. 93).

Further evidence that the basal ganglia are involved in generating automatic speech comes from people with Tourette’s syndrome. This is a hereditary neurological disorder affecting the basal ganglia which leads to loss of control of bodily actions and the production of undecipherable sounds together with taboo words. In the case of people with Tourette’s syndrome who use sign language, they also produce obscene signs uncontrollably. These symptoms, found in all people with Tourette’s syndrome, are called coprolalia (from the Greek words for “feces” and “speech”) and copropraxia (“feces” and “gestures”).

It is interesting to compare the swearing preserved in aphasia with coprolalia (one of the symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome). Aphasics don’t feel the uncontrollable urge to swear that most people with coprolalia experience and the expletives they produce mainly express frustration or surprise (e.g., shit, fuck, or goddamnit). The expletives that people with coprolalia produce tend to be words for body parts and bodily effluvia, as well as racial, ethnic, and gender-based slurs. And this is true for speakers of a variety of languages. Notably, both types of swear words express strong but temporary emotional states.

To sum up, it seems that spontaneous use of profane language is associated with the basal ganglia, a system within the brain that we share with other mammals. The basal ganglia are interconnected with the brain structures that process emotions (the anterior cingulate, the hippocampus, and the amygdala). When emotional states are generated, the role of the basal ganglia is to regulate and suppress them, if necessary. In people with coprolalia and copropraxia, the basal ganglia are not able to suppress verbal and physical impulses, resulting in the emergence of expletives and obscene gestures. Primates share this system with humans, and Bergen (2016, pp. 95-96) speculates that impulsive, emotionally driven human swearing might be driven by this same circuitry. If so, this circuit fills an important evolutionary function for social beings by allowing us to transmit signals that communicate quickly and efficiently our internal emotional state to others of our species. The difference between human cursing and monkey calls is that we do not simply shriek. We use taboo words that we know are certain to draw attention.

Emotion and intentional uses of profanity

We have seen how use of profanity can be out of our control at times, but we also know very well that obscenity is used intentionally most of the time. What are the benefits of uttering expletives, apart from alerting others to a temporary heightened emotional state? Several studies have shown that swearing can increase our tolerance of pain. People could keep their hands in ice-cold water for 33% longer if they were allowed to swear using the traditional swearword “fuck” than if they were allowed to use neutral words or even newly coined swearwords for the experiment, such as “fouch” or “twizpipe” (Stephens & Robertson, 2020).

Stephens and his fellow researchers (2018, 2022) have also demonstrated that repeating a swear word can increase people’s physical endurance and strength (bike riding, grip, and arm strength) and the likelihood they will engage in risky behaviour, and that these results are related to a state of disinhibition that swearing can induce. They also found that repeating a swear word increased flow, positive emotion, humour, distraction, and self-confidence.

Emotion and intentional avoidance of profanity

Researchers have known for a long time that saying or hearing a taboo word evokes an emotional response. They have confirmed this by measuring skin conductance to test for the amount people sweat (Harris et al., 2003; McGinnies, 1949). Researchers in 1981 used this tool (galvanic skin response, GSR) to demonstrate that people have a more emotional response when taboo words are internally activated in word pair tests and they are trying to avoid uttering these words as slips of the tongue (Motley et al., 1981). This is a very clever kind of experiment which uses the brain’s predilection for patterns and prediction. The researchers asked participants to read aloud word pairs e.g., kind tiger, calm time, cold tea, tool kits. The participants showed raised emotional levels (through skin conductance tests) and took more time before saying “tool kits” and not “cool tits” indicating that they were aware that they might utter a taboo expression if they followed the pattern, and that they were editing their verbal response.

The experimental subjects also took more time to process the pairs of words that were likely to induce a profane slip of the tongue. This result indicated the presence of an internal editing system for avoidance of an unsuitable use of profane language.

We also know that experiencing strong emotions leads people to instantaneously store a memory of what they are doing when experiencing that emotion. We call this a flash-bulb memory (Bergen, 2016, p. 118). When people are asked which words they remember from experiments that measure their physical and mental reactions to taboo words and non-taboo words in a taboo Stroop-effect test³, the results show the same internal monitoring. “Strangely, taboo words induce a Stroop effect as well: they interfere with people’s inability to say what color a word is printed in” (Bergen, 2016, p. 116). Interestingly, it is the taboo words they remember best after the test. They can even remember what colour these words were printed in. This is yet another indicator of the emotional impact of taboo words.

³ The Stroop effect can be demonstrated by showing people words printed in different colours and asking them to say what colour the word is printed in. They can do this well if the meaning of the word matches the colour (for example, the word green is printed in green), but are slower and make mistakes when the meaning of the word and the colour don’t match (for example, the word red is printed in green). The same hesitation and errors that occur in pair-word tests can be induced when taboo words are mixed in with non-taboo words and this version is called a taboo Stroop test.

We have already seen that swearing is learned during childhood and that admonition and punishment by parents and other authority figures contribute to the emotionally arousing aspects of swear word use (Jay et al, 2006). Tomash and Reed (2013) found that people had significantly higher physiological arousal (measured by GSR skin conductance) when saying swear words than neutral words, and that this arousal was higher for participants who had previously received more frequent punishment for swearing (according to the participants’ self-reports). This suggests that the way we learn to use and to avoid using swear words is an important aspect of their emotional power.

Negative and positive uses of profanity

The most offensive forms of profanity these days are slurs, such as nigger in the US and cunt in the UK. They can dehumanize members of the defamed group (African Americans and people with a vagina) in the eyes of non-members of that group, which can lead to bias against and bullying of members of the slurred group. This can cause them anxiety, depression, and personal distress and decrease their feeling of belonging at school or in their workplace. Sometimes, however, when members of a slurred group are exposed to the slur, it can make them feel more loyal to and eager to defend their group while still finding the slur offensive.

Bergen discusses the appropriation of nigger by African Americans to refer to their own group in a positive way by changing nigger to nigga. In turn, the meaning of nigga has expanded and is now used to refer not only to African Americans, but can also be used to refer favourably to white people and even animals (2016, p. 209). Bergen (2016, p. 210) also discusses how slurs are used without being intended or interpreted as offensive when they are used among members of a close-knit social group in the US. Using slurs about a member of the group or allowing others in the group to use slurs about oneself demonstrates security in the friendship among the members. It also shows that you are strong and self-confident because words and name-calling don’t worry or upset you. Polly Vernon (2024) discusses the power of cunt when used by women in the UK. She says that this taboo word is “the first I ever understood to be truly powerful” especially when it is said by a woman because it is “more transgressive from a woman — more unexpected and therefore more shocking and powerful — but also politically loaded.”

For some people, it is the most offensive swearword in the UK at present because they feel such disgust and contempt for women’s bodies that they are appalled if they are referred to as that most private female body part. For others, this essentially female area of the body is so revered and respected that to use it to insult or hurt another is to disrespect and even violate all women. Use of cunt offends almost all people who position themselves on the feminism spectrum and Vernon loves to use it “because it’s still considered too much by almost everybody else. If everyone were suddenly fine with it, I’d be terribly sad.” She would miss the empowerment she experiences when deploying this word at strategic moments.

Another positive aspect of the use of taboo words that may come as a surprise is that it has been shown to increase persuasiveness. Scherer & Sagarin (2006) had participants listen to one of three versions of a speech about lowering tuition. The word “damn” appeared in these speeches at the beginning, at the end, or nowhere. The results showed that use of profanity at the beginning or end of the speech significantly increased the persuasiveness of the speech, and the perceived intensity of the speaker, and had no effect on speaker credibility.

You may also be surprised to learn that, despite the common perception that use of profanity correlates with dishonesty, there is abundant circumstantial and experimental evidence that profanity can be positively associated with honesty. It is seen to express someone’s unfiltered feelings, such as anger or frustration and to demonstrate sincerity. For example, people perceive testimonies containing swear words as more credible than those without (Rassin & Van Der Heijden, 2005). It has also been found that innocent suspects are more likely to use swear words than guilty suspects when denying accusations (Inbau et al., Jayne, 2011).

Swearing can empower people by creating an impact, or causing a shock effect (Not Sorry Productions, 2024). Claire Cohen (2024) explains how empowerment, pleasure, and satisfaction can be derived from offending and deviating from the expected norm.

Should profanity be tolerated? Can it be eliminated?

By now, I hope you can see how closely profanity and emotion are connected and that you will accept that certain uses of profanity do not simply demonstrate a person’s limited vocabulary, or lack of education, or even self-control (all of which have been demonstrated experimentally to be untrue. See Bergen’s, 2018, “Epilogue”). We learn taboo words from the social world we inhabit and can deploy them at strategic moments to express intense emotions, to gain attention, and even to increase mental and physical strength. Because we are aware of the emotional jolt that use of strong language can cause others, we also work very hard to avoid uttering expletives when situations do not call for their use. It seems unlikely that profanities will ever be eliminated, because they are an integral part of our emotional circuitry and fulfill important functions. If we find certain words particularly offensive, we can strive at a personal level to block them out of our intentional speech while we wait for them to lose their current profane connotations, as they inevitably will.

References

Bergen, B. (2016). What the F***: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves. Basic Books.
Bergen, B. (2018). What the F***: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves. Basic Books. (Kindle version)
Cohen, C. (2024, February 15). Please do be offended while I give two fingers to the gender swear gap. The Guardian Newspaper Online.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/15/olivia-coleman-gender-swear-gap
Engelthaler, T., & Hills, T. T. (2018). Humor norms for 4,997 English words. Behavior Research Methods, 50, 1116–1124 https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0930-6 https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-017-0930-6#citeas
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Not Sorry Productions. (2024, January 23). Should I quit: cussing? (with Sarah Stewart Holland) (Season 3, Episode 54) [Audio podcast episode]. In The Real Question. https://shows.acast.com/the-real-question/episodes/should-i-quit-cussing-with-sarah-stewart-holland
Philipp, M. C., & Lombardo L. (2017). Hurt feelings and four letter words: Swearing alleviates the pain of social distress. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47(4), 517–523.
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Stephens R., Spierer D. K., & Katehis E. (2018). Effect of swearing on strength and power performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 35(3), 111–117.
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Vernon, P. (2024, February 24). I’m with Olivia Coleman. If you don’t like us swearing, you know what you can do. The Times. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/im-with-olivia-colman-if-you-dont-like-us-swearing-you-know-what-to-do-75wdsqtxp

Amanda Gillis-Furutaka is the generally politely spoken President of the JALT Mind, Brain and Education Special Interest Group. In her final year before retirement from Kyoto Sangyo University, she has decided to draw attention to this particular overlooked area of language education.