Knowing a lot of insults does not mean that people use them randomly, psychologists demonstrate.
Many people cannot help but punctuate their sentences with insults and profanity. In the collective imagination, they are perceived as having little education, limited cultural background, obliged to fill a lexical void with vulgarity. What is often perceived as “a poverty of language” has served as the basis for many social judgments. However, contrary to popular belief, having a flowery vocabulary reveals surprising intellectual abilities according to psychology.
To verify this, psychologists and neuroscience researchers tested the ability of volunteers to cite as many swear words as possible in 1 minute, then as many animal names as possible. To the scientists’ surprise, the participants who knew the most profanities were those who mentioned animal names the most. According to the researchers, they have a more “fluid” and “vivid” brain which accesses its lexical database more quickly. In other words, if their brain has rapid access to insults, it is because it has rapid access to its entire internal dictionary.
This agility can be explained by a particular cerebral organization. Polite language is managed by the neocortex (rational brain), while swearing springs from the limbic system (emotional brain). This proves that swearing is not a “language error”, but a discharge of energy. This explains why we can swear in pain without even thinking about it. People who swear “juggle” better between their rational brain and their emotional brain. “Swearing is therefore not a lack of education, it is a survival mechanism directly linked to emotions“, assures Timothy Jay, lead author of the study published in the journal “Language Sciences”.
The psychologists’ study shows another intellectual asset: knowing a lot of swear words does not mean that people use them randomly. On the contrary, researchers have found that those with an expanded repertoire of swear words understand social nuances better. On the one hand, they know the difference between a mild insult and an extremely taboo word. On the other hand, they adapt their language depending on the context (you don’t swear the same way with your friends as you do at work).
Ultimately, swearing reveals a form of emotional intelligence. By choosing not to filter their language for the sake of conformity, these people demonstrate greater authenticity. Knowing how to swear at the right time is therefore not proof of a deficiency, but that of a lively brain, capable of navigating between the nuances of language and the needs for emotional release. The next time you hear a well-placed curse word, perhaps think of it as a sign of a particularly nimble mind.
