Turns Out Swearing Is Actually Pretty #$@!% Good for You, According to a New Study

Key Takeaways
Swearing can boost strength and performance by helping you focus and push past mental limits.It relieves stress and pain by activating emotional and physiological release in the brain and body.Moderation matters—occasional, context-appropriate cursing delivers benefits without backfiring socially.

Growing up, my family had a strict no-cursing policy—at least for the kids. Though my parents tried their best to refrain from swearing, these forbidden words managed to slip out of their mouths pretty regularly. Of course, this only made me more curious about them. What made them so special that only adults could use them? And what would happen if I dropped one into a conversation?

That changed sometime around high school, at which point my mother would chastise me for “swearing like a sailor” and sounding “unladylike.” I’m afraid I never stopped, and continue to drop F-bombs (when appropriate) to this day. But my potty mouth didn’t just make my mother uncomfortable. As it turns out, cursing does a body good. That’s right: swearing has several science-backed benefits. From making you physically stronger to helping you release stress, here’s what cursing can do for you.

It Can Make You Physically Stronger

Cursing may unlock your hidden strength, according to a recent study from the American Psychological Association. “In many situations, people hold themselves back—consciously or unconsciously—from using their full strength,” says study author Richard Stephens, PhD, of Keele University in the United Kingdom. “Swearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident, and less distracted, and ‘go for it’ a little more.”

This boost can come in handy while doing tasks involving strength—like moving furniture, athletics, and physical rehabilitation, as well as situations requiring courage or assertiveness. “Swearing may represent a low-cost, widely accessible psychological intervention to help individuals ‘not hold back’ when peak performance is needed,” the authors write.

It Can Help Relieve Stress

Feeling tense and stressed out? According to several studies, cursing may help. But what makes it so effective?

Swearing can offer short-term stress relief because it allows you to release your emotions, says Maya Reynolds, MD, psychiatrist and behavioral health spokesperson at Choice Point Health. “Rude language externalizes intense emotions instead of suppressing them, such as anger, pain, or frustration,” she explains. “Swearing gives an expression to inner turmoil that helps the nervous system release stress and tension.”

A quick, emotionally charged venting of frustration can easily be followed by a reduction of physiological arousal, like muscle relaxation and decreased heart rate, says Aubrey B. Hunt, a licensed clinical social worker and clinical supervisor at Willow Ridge. “The brain processes swear words in a very different manner than it does neutral language, and this activates the emotional centers responsible for the release of stored feelings.”

When we don’t have an outlet for complicated emotions like anger or frustration, it can become a stressor to our health, contributing to heart disease, high blood pressure, and anxiety, says Patrice Le Goy, PhD, a psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist. “If cursing helps you release those emotions, that could be considered a health benefit,” she notes.

It Can Help Decrease Pain

One of the most-studied benefits of cursing is its ability to significantly increase people’s pain tolerance. More specifically, the research has indicated that not only does someone’s pain threshold increase when they swear, but their perception of pain also decreases.

In a seminal 2009 study, researchers found that swearing increased pain tolerance and heart rate, and decreased perceived pain. According to the authors, the pain-lessening effect may happen because swearing induces a fight-or-flight response and diminishes the link between fear of pain and pain perception. “Having a quick and accessible emotional outlet for stress or pain prevents us from holding on to and internalizing those negative feelings—this is true for general stress relief or physical stress,” Le Goy says. 

It Can Improve Exercise Performance

Along the same lines, cursing’s ability to help decrease pain may, in turn, allow people to keep exercising when they otherwise would have stopped from being sore. (Although it’s important not to push yourself too hard.)  “[Swearing] can also release endorphins that give us more strength to complete the task at hand,” Le Goy says.

But before you get too carried away, we should point out that there’s a time and place for this language. “Situational cursing can help one get rid of overwhelming emotions,” Reynolds says. “Context, frequency, and social circle matter. The mental benefits are more likely to appear when it is occasional and socially appropriate.”