Researchers find swearing has health benefits

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:49 PM -0500 7/15/09, Dennis Baron wrote:
>There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
>Researchers find swearing has health benefits. If you're in pain,
>curse twice and call me in the morning
>People who swear when they're hurt feel less pain than those who
>don't. At least that's the conclusion of a team of psychologists
>from England's Keele University.
>
>The researchers asked 67 undergraduates to stick their hands in ice
>water while repeating a curse word of their choice, and then to do
>it again while repeating a non-swear word they had also chosen
>(Richard Stephens, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, "Swearing as a
>response to pain," NeuroReport 20 [Aug. 5, 2009]

Besides helping one to cope with pain, swearing evidently also proves
effective at facilitating time travel.

LH

>: 1056-60). Swearers were able to keep their hands in the 5 degree
>C. water longer than non-swearers (though one participant did have
>to drop out of the study out because the "curse word" the student
>picked wasn't actually a curse word).
>
>Read the rest of this post on the Web of Language:
>http://tinyurl.com/weblang
>
>____________________
>Dennis Baron
>Professor of English and Linguistics
>Department of English
>University of Illinois
>608 S. Wright St.
>Urbana, IL 61801
>
>office: 217-244-0568
>fax: 217-333-4321
>
>http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>
>read the Web of Language:
>http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
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