Original photo by Photology1971/ iStock
Letting out a well-timed expletive can feel pretty cathartic, but it turns out it can do more than make us feel better — it can also make us stronger. English psychologist Richard Stephens first got curious about the effects of swearing after watching his wife give birth — was it just a reaction to the pain, he wondered, or did cursing actually act as a physical boon?
He first tested his theory in 2009 by having subjects repeat a swear word of their choice while their hand was submerged in ice-cold water. The subjects who cursed lasted an average of 160 seconds — one minute longer than those who used non-swear words.
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It's a factSaltwater crocodiles clamp their jaws with a force of about 3,700 psi — far surpassing humans (150-200 psi) and even big cats (1,000 psi). The great white shark's estimated bite of nearly 4,000 psi, however, has yet to be directly measured, so crocodiles remain on top for now.
In 2024, Stephens, along with Samford University associate professor Nick Washmuth, released another study showing that cursing during exercise indeed had measurable benefits. Participants were asked to repeat a swear word of their choice every three seconds during a Wingate Anaerobic Power Test — essentially a measurement of muscle performance during short, intense bursts of effort — and for 10 seconds before and throughout the duration of a grip-strength test. The results showed swearing increased peak power by 4.5% during the Wingate test and improved grip strength by 8% compared to using neutral words. During push-ups and planks, swearing every five seconds increased the time subjects were able to continue before total fatigue by 15% and 12%, respectively.
As impressive as that data is, scientists still haven’t been able to pinpoint an explanation. It was initially chalked up to the boost in strength provided by the adrenaline released during one’s fight-or-flight response. But later studies showed that not every participant demonstrated the changes in heart rate associated with the fight-or-flight response. The bottom line, however, remains clear: A timely curse word may not give you superhuman strength, but it could very well give you a crucial edge when you need it most.
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Our fight-or-flight response is controlled by the ______.
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Our fight-or-flight response is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.
"Gone With the Wind" almost lost one of its most iconic lines because of a swear word.
In the 1939 film adaptation of Gone With the Wind, Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler utters one of cinema’s most enduring parting lines to his wife Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh): “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Although it’s considered a mild curse word by today’s standards, at the time, “damn” almost didn’t make it past Hollywood’s strict film guidelines known as the Hays Code.
Producer David O. Selznick fought for the film to retain that emotional line — one that was lifted nearly word-for-word from the 1936 novel. Though Selznick was eventually granted special permission to keep the line, it wasn’t before he came up with a list of possible alternatives, including “I don’t give a straw,” “My indifference is boundless,” and “The devil may care — I don’t!”
Nicole is a writer, thrift store lover, and group-chat meme spammer based in Ontario, Canada.
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