A new study<\/a> published in the journal American Psychologist found that swearing helps people perform better on physical tasks, with participants reporting it made them feel more self-confident and focused.<\/p>\nIn other words, next time you\u2019re tempted to drop an f-bomb at the gym, scientists say you should go for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many situations, people hold themselves back \u2013 consciously or unconsciously \u2013 from using their full strength,\u201d lead author Richard Stephens, senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cSwearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident and less distracted, and \u2018go for it\u2019 a little more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The study builds upon a large body of research that already establishes a link between swearing and improved physical performance. But for the first time, researchers have aimed to focus on the mechanism behind this relationship.<\/p>\n
Stephens and colleagues from Keele University and University of Alabama in Huntsville believe swearing could put people in a disinhibited state of mind, which they define as \u201ctemporarily tending towards behaviours that are under-controlled rather than over-controlled\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy swearing, we throw off social constraint and allow ourselves to push harder in different situations,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n
The study asked 192 participants in two separate experiments to repeat either a swear word of their choosing, or a neutral word, every two seconds while doing a chair pushup. <\/p>\n
Researchers then asked participants to answer questions about their mental state during the task \u2013 such as how focused or confident they felt, or how funny they found the exercise.<\/p>\n
Overall, those who swore were able to hold their body weight up significantly longer than those who repeated a neutral word. <\/p>\n
They reported feeling more confident in their abilities and being distracted from thinking about other things. Participants also noted reaching a state of \u201cpsychological flow,\u201d or a pleasant state of immersion in the activity at hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings help explain why swearing is so commonplace,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwearing is literally a calorie neutral, drug free, low cost, readily available tool at our disposal for when we need a boost in performance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 23\/12\/2025 – 12:26 GMT+1 Swearing like a sailor is generally frowned upon in polite society. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,84,395,3182,8680,994,795,4139],"class_list":{"0":"post-364218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-physical-activity","13":"tag-psychology","14":"tag-research","15":"tag-study","16":"tag-university"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}