Why the #$@&% Does Swearing Reduce Pain?

It has been suggested that swearing can reduce the sensation of pain. We put this to the test.
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[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks everyone for watching, we've really enjoyed reading your great feedback, messages and mustache comments (although we would have expected a few more puns). While you're here, there is something else we moustache you - did you know we're on Patreon? www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution We'd love to make more videos like this so please check it out if you have a chance.

[@JuxtaposedStars]

What about bilingual speakers(swearing in native tongue more effective for example?) or other languages besides English?

[@neddyladdy]

What on earth are you babbling on about ? Moustache as a verb ? WHAT? Mustache ? What on earth on is mustache ? must ache ?

[@jakeroosenbloom]

That mustache though 😍

[@jameskeating6626]

Classic Moustache

[@pravinda333]

And the earring.

[@SciTechTalk]

I will not neglect this good advice !

[@Atm_0s]

I really liked this new format, though I'd suggest having them as break up material between the real lectures. Thanks for the content!

[@mikesmith2905]

Agreed, this was interesting but the full lectures are interesting in a different way and preferable for spending a little quiet time watching and contemplating more complex issues.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks for the feedback, that's really helpful! We'll definitely continue with our talks, but with extremely limited funding we really need to figure out what type of short form content works best and how much of it we can do.

[@Ostinat0]

I think this format works well and is quite engaging and appropriate for KZbin. If I actually lived in London and could attend lectures that'd be lovely, but alas :( Watching them on KZbin just isn't the same as being there - at least for me - so I'm liking the short-form content as it holds my interest better when I'm not in "ready to listen to a lecture" mode which is how I do most of my youtube watching.

[@cathyedwards4879]

Love this! So funny - that guy who kept his hand in the water for over 4 minutes - what a hero!

[@h0ph1p13]

I think it's more about learning to detach from pain. You can learn that. Check out for example Shinzen Young and his recollection of having to bathe with ice cold water. No, it's not about about a physical technique like with Wim Hof.

[@ToeCutter454]

"I say we should all swear, all the time" i like her already! love to find a woman like that!

[@sparhopper]

I'm often in pain, and swearing absolutely ******* helps.

Very much enjoyed this format! Keep them coming!

[@timsmith6675]

I liked the shorter format, along with RI's longer lectures as well. As a junkie KZbin watcher (on various subjects) , getting a lot of information in less than 10 minutes can contribute to us laymen's understanding of your topic. Do both, is what I recommend and thank you for speading science and knowledge. :)

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks, Tim! We're definitely going to keep going with the talks, there's so many excellent ones coming up in the building that it would be silly not to film them. With limited resources we do have to pick quite carefully which short films we are going to do so we might be throwing all sorts of different things at you in the coming months to see what the magic formula is. Thanks for watching!

[@mcee823]

tim smith, check out SIXTY SYMBOLS. Not as good as RI lectures but pretty cool.

[@v0idbit69]

Can we get a mustache tutorial next?

[@GurkiratSingh-ds8dq]

What about singing? In my opinion singing also makes pain more manageable, perhaps due to it being a distraction. Works better with more lively songs. Is there any study regarding this?

[@007Hurst]

Loved it don't think I'll try this at work but loved it & your lectures

[@asdfghyter]

This was a ducking good video!

[@yaheki]

Now you guys should try letting them continuously swearing during the experiment and see if the effect lessen over time!

[@Holobrine]

Why do we forbid children from using words that reduce pain?

[@r.b.4611]

Don't you have to redo this with "cold trials"? (no pun) to eliminate the possibility that people just get better at keeping their hand in the second time around? I.e. divide 100 people into 50 control and 50 swearing and only give them one shot at it.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

We tried it both ways, half the people did swearing first and the other half did neutral word first. Other than Dave, who as a former rower, noticed not difference between the two methods, everyone else had better performance when swearing, regardless of which method they tried first. But maybe here's a citizen science project in the making here...

[@r.b.4611]

Hey that's good to hear. And I appreciate the reply.

[@sachae321]

I think it’s our upbringing. How about people in remote areas that don’t swear or haven’t as much language? As a child, swearing is told it’s ‘naughty’ and if we do it we fear getting caught. That establishes the fight or flight. When doing it during exercise, it’s more accepted due to the group of people you see swearing when doing physical work (or accidentally dropping a weight) but it’s also a level of rebellion - I’m allowed to swear and if I keep exercising I can keep swearing - vicious circle. That what I think any way. Now what’s a good way to prove that? One addition to the test - ask the participants how long they think they can hold their hand in without swearing and allow them to swear if they want = perception of time and reward, and others how long they could keep going if they did swear but a reward for not swearing and meeting their time goal - perception of internalising and of time.

[@EmmaHollen]

This is a great format! Keep up the good work! :D

[@larneyful]

That was f*%kin awesome! :)

[@beachmobjellies]

Curious about how the subjects were being tested. was it always in the same order (like first with swearing, then without)? how long was the resting time between the first and the second test? did the participants see the clock? does it hold up with a large sample size? double blinded and all that jazz?

[@rpcruz]

Very cool... in the experiments you show, are you sure that it is the swearing which helped and not the fact that it was the second time they were doing the same experiment?

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

We actually varied it up! Half of our participants did it swearing first and the other did it neutral word first.

[@ratamacue0320]

The Royal Institution, I was going to ask about this. Wish you had said so in the video. Food for thought for next time.

[@saulg.lopezhernandez6325]

@@TheRoyalInstitution Hi! How much time passed from one test to the other?

[@yoshtg]

i didnt really watch the video but my guess is that swearing causes also things like adrenaline to be produced which also lowers the amount of pain we perceive?

[@boldngold5204]

Nobody: Not a single soul: Fornitepro6996: 3:39

[@burakc9673]

I mus.. tache you to make more videos like this.

[@Stoney_Eagle]

Things that make me go #$@&% is that every time a gamer turns up in a cutscene is the fact that the controller is always of. Swearing releaves pain and stress!

[@h0ph1p13]

If I am doing push ups and swear at the same time my body is already stressed, my heart rate has already risen above what swearing can do. So how would you measure the effect of swearing/aggression if I am already enacting it through my body?! I think swearing as a distraction is a good explanation. I notice that i can do harder tasks at work when I "get angry at the problem". I also tend to focus better when there is "energising music" specific types of it. I think it might be different for different people. Use what helps you 😁

[@NicolasBana]

This video is f*cking amazing !

[@mcee823]

This is fairly well known. I was expecting more when I saw the RI were tackling the subject. The moustache seems to be a symptom! Feel like my lovely.,much respected great Aunt has turned up with a tattoo and a toyboy.

[@kadourimdou43]

This is f*****g great.

[@DaniEIdiomas]

I wonder what would say Wim Hof about this XD

[@3ATIVE]

An increase in aggression (swearing, screaming or otherwise "crying out") when damaged or stressed serves many purposes. Chief of which are... * A 'Danger' signal to others / An announcement of required aid * A mental distraction from the injury or adverse stimuli ... think about how many times you've tried to lift something extremely heavy and NOT made any sound.

[@h0ph1p13]

This reminds me of warriors shouting when entering battle, when attacking and when getting hit.

[@petereklund7145]

I enjoyed the part with beeps.

[@maclypse]

I'd like to know if it swearing can help ease psychological discomfort as well. Can swearing make anger, anxiety and sadness more manageable?

[@ggklncnoifewAsdarp]

The trick is not minding that it hurts.

[@ShobhitAsati]

It might probably related to our survival instinct, and also(maybe, i think) we use #*@% as a tool to dominate pain while fighting it, in order to survive.

[@ivanhorvat3099]

Amazing video.

[@worddunlap]

Thats quite a mustache. You win the internet!

[@thesmithrecord]

*At the gym* Someone: Fuck... Fuck... Fuck... Fuck. Me: WTF are you doing.

[@NetAndyCz]

How about using positive words? Or encouraging positive thinking along the lines "I can hold the hand there longer" "I will beat everyone else" and so on? I mean I think that would be more helpful than saying neutral words like "wood". PS: love that outlier.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

We feel a follow up experiment coming on

[@omkarchavan5940]

Also, this experiment would have been more precise or accurate if those test subjects had never used swearing words. I see a lot of biasing in the experiment. Carrying out experiment on very large scale may solve the problem.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Ours was just a demonstration really, the original research was done by real scientists

[@NetAndyCz]

I am sure that swearing does help reduce the pain, but the original research leaves many questions unanswered. For me one of the best things to reduce the pain is distraction. I do not care about pain all that much when I am reading a book, playing a game or watching TC, when I am immersed in alternate reality I can ignore pain (that is long lasting pain, pretty sure that if I was proded by something pointy I would have felt that immediately. Though if I was aware of the pointy thing I might feel pain before it touched me.) If there was not so much paperwork with publishing I would have became a scientist to be able to test these kind of things for a living.

[@omkarchavan5940]

What do you mean by "Real Scientists"? What should we consider people of Ri to be ?

[@sleepysartorialist]

Well this was f**king fun 😹

[@kc3vv]

I wonder if the same holds true with complaining.

[@FirstLast-fr4hb]

Whats with the recent videos endorsing swearing over self control? Words are words, they have no effect on physiology beyond minor resonances that have no correlation to the meaning of the word. Why this sudden endorsement of placebo? P.S. Classy old British-Indo moustache there.😊

[@Epoch11]

Did you say that golf game so fast to make it stick out and so I would buy it........well, I did so nice job.

[@ghostrider82599]

could be interesting for those working on tourette syndrome

[@robbiejames1466]

What if you just say neutral words aggressively?

[@20shourya]

Robbie James I just go Donald Trump Donald Trump.

[@RBuckminsterFuller]

"Doing the swearing condition". Nice.

[@joeyb22792]

That was good shit

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks, Joe.

[@kkilljoy3588]

Fucking great video

[@omkarchavan5940]

How does this relates to every person in the world, with vary high amount of diversity of thinking?

[@mcee823]

ओमकार चव्हाण, is this what you want to be called. Shame I wouldn't know where to start. Defeats the idea of language to me!

[@omkarchavan5940]

I didn't get you!? What are you trying to convey?

[@nHans]

*Anand:* We tried something a bit new with this video ... *Me:* Yeah, I noticed: Censorship. *Anand:* ... so let us know what you think *Me:* *I DON'T $#@%/?& LIKE CENSORSHIP!* 😡 PS: I had to self-censor that last line to make it past your censorship. 😡💥

[@jpereda97]

Wow this guy's cute

[@haggissupper7779]

Juan Pereda Yeah, he's cute. And the tache makes him hotter coz it's ballsy. 👨🏽😉

[@jpereda97]

Haggis Supper I got some pretty GODDAMNED mixed feelings about the moustache

[@ajdc88]

why's the host dressed like that one guy from temple of doom?

[@F96-t6s]

I'm intrested in the "outlier" technique so I can stay employed.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Years and years of rowing (and then coaching rowing) according to Dave. Will help with cold water, perhaps not so helpful with other types of stress or pain...

[@xrogaan]

What a glorious mustache!

[@nosmartyr]

Flawed. Instead of a random silly neutral word subjects should have been saying "ouch" & other expressions of pain.

[@gabrieltinsley6866]

I THINK I F&$#°`×G LIKE THIS VIDEO!!!!

[@BigBadRedMantis]

catastrophising sounds like what offended people do

[@egg2]

Fucking good video, guys

[@esh8604]

who else cringed when he stepped on the outlet

[@7piecebucket]

Not me!!! I guess I have become desensitized from watching ElectroBOOM's videos.

[@7piecebucket]

Incidentally, he swears a lot during his videos. Hmmmm.

[@jakeknapp6833]

It’s doesn’t help with pain some of them if horrible sin sexuality or racist slurs and others it’s not meant to be pain and consider rude why so many of years of f’s not the other itself the foul word becuase why sometimes musicians KZbinrs Hollywood not all actors use it in hip hop criminals to elderlys sometimes or kids sometimes racist people swear sometimes why Twitter many times someone with depress not all drug addicts alcoholics other rappers like mgk satanic things and more

[@jakeknapp6833]

What I’m referring is middle language in case then stronger and extreme and explicit

[@jakeknapp6833]

Mild

[@blacksebastian2]

Do atheist have an advantage at the battlefield because of this phenomenon?

[@thesoundsmith]

Stress like the video game raises the FLOOR at which you NOTICE the pain. It's all bandwidth. BUT, that 'stash is WAY too big for your face, bro. Unless you are a lover of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Then I forgive you. :-D (And if you're not, you are missing something sublime...)

[@schinken2323]

Why are you still censoring the swearing? You're undermining the whole point of it to show how swearing is part of normal human behavior that helps us cope with situations.

[@trevsmith6719]

what is with that ridiculous moustache?

[@DrWrapperband]

So religious people cause pain?

[@andreaswagner6022]

Stop beeping things.

[@rameyzamora1018]

So in a way, you've proved that violent video games DO result in more violent behavior (aggression). Thought this was being pooh poohed by the boffins, but glad to see it shown for what it is - quite a natural response of human nature to violence.

[@Kalumbatsch]

He said "measures of aggression", not "violent behavior". Quite different. And calling the scientific consensus "being pooh poohed by the boffins" is pretty fucking condescending.

[@locouk]

Now try it with someone who swears a lot as a usual form of communication. I think this is just an example of the placebo effect being used as an excuse for foul mutterings.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

That's actually a really interesting point that we looked into. Both people who swear regularly and ones who don't showed this increased pain tolerance in the ice bucket experiment (both in the study as well as in our own little test group). The words they chose were different, but the effect was comparable.

[@dragoncurveenthusiast]

Stephen Fry did this experiment in his series "Fry's planet word" episode 3, which was all about swearing. He compared himself to Brian Blessed :-D doing the same ice bucket test. The whole episode (and series) is worth watching, but below is a link to the specific part. It's not bleeped, but hilarious to watch. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqDagYeBi5Wsp6cm (until ~21:20) The researcher (Richard Stephens) says they found that for people who swear a lot in everyday life, the words seem to lose their potency and the effect is less strong.

[@verioffkin]

If we truly go science we must find first what swearing and bad words is. In case of this video it's just cultural reflex with its consequences including physiological ones, and nothing more. Nice moustache btw. P.S. Looking into origins of swearing, I believe, will lead you far far away to the past of mankind. As physiological phenomenon it's much less interesting than as ethnological, anthropological, and linguistical.

[@manuhernz4431]

I'd better say GOD! rather than FUCK!... Though for me GOD means YES, I CAN!

[@rod1987]

I Dont Agree.

[@S4rms]

This guy looks 12 and 35 at the same time wtf