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SA: Swearing Is Actually a Sign of More Intelligence - Not Less - Say Scientists


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Swearing Is Actually a Sign of More Intelligence - Not Less - Say Scientists

 

The use of obscene or taboo language - or swearing, as it’s more commonly known - is often seen as a sign that the speaker lacks vocabulary, cannot express themselves in a less offensive way, or even lacks intelligence.

 

Studies have shown, however, that swearing may in fact display a more, rather than less, intelligent use of language.

 

While swearing can become a habit, we choose to swear in different contexts and for different purposes: for linguistic effect, to convey emotion, for laughs, or perhaps even to be deliberately nasty.

 

Psychologists interested in when and why people swear try to look past the stereotype that swearing is the language of the unintelligent and illiterate.

 

In fact, a study by psychologists from Marist College found links between how fluent a person is in the English language and how fluent they are in swearing.

 

The former - verbal fluency - can be measured by asking volunteers to think of as many words beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet as they can in 1 minute.

 

People with greater language skills can generally think of more examples in the allotted time. Based on this approach, the researchers created the swearing fluency task. This task requires volunteers to list as many different swear words as they can think of in 1 minute.

 

By comparing scores from both the verbal and swearing fluency tasks, it was found that the people who scored highest on the verbal fluency test also tended to do best on the swearing fluency task. The weakest in the verbal fluency test also did poorly on the swearing fluency task.

 

What this correlation suggests is that swearing isn’t simply a sign of language poverty, lack of general vocabulary, or low intelligence.

 

 

Instead, swearing appears to be a feature of language that an articulate speaker can use in order to communicate with maximum effectiveness. And actually, some uses of swearing go beyond just communication.

 

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Every now and again some study comes out somehow proving that people who swear profusely are smarter than those that don’t.  Now, I swear quite a bit but I’m also no genius.  Aside from that, I think that encouraging swearing with silly studies like this only encourages negative behavior while repressing positive aspects of society like being polite.

 

So, I’m sorry to say that I think this study is a bunch of bull hockey.

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28 minutes ago, Bacon said:

So my daughter picking up swears from me will help her in school? Great news! 

Bacon about to start doing his parent-teacher conferences remotely : )

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6GR3mmNejY

 

 

6 minutes ago, Springfield said:

Every now and again some study comes out somehow proving that people who swear profusely are smarter than those that don’t.  Now, I swear quite a bit but I’m also no genius.  Aside from that, I think that encouraging swearing with silly studies like this only encourages negative behavior while repressing positive aspects of society like being polite.

 

So, I’m sorry to say that I think this study is a bunch of bull hockey.

 

I, too, am not a fan of half-true scientific headlines where the scientist are like "yo, we never said that".

 

I think there is some truth to having a larger vulgar vocabulary if you already have a large vocabulary, what I got was that smart people know more cusswords, that still doesn't mean they have to use them.  You ever known somebody that when they cuss you know its on?

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1 minute ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

Came up with it on the fly.

It is better than average.  I'd go so far as to say very good.  It is clean and topical, but it's missing proper use of big and lesser-known words that causes your victim to slink away to a dictionary to figure out the severity of the burns you dealt them.

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3 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

It is better than average.  I'd go so far as to say very good.  It is clean and topical, but it's missing proper use of big and lesser-known words that causes your victim to slink away to a dictionary to figure out the severity of the burns you dealt them.

I feel it is better to avoid that approach.  I prefer that they leave in such a teary state of despair that they go home and think about how much they suck, not trying to remember what obscure words I used.

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Whoa. Cool. I was 10 years old in Fort Leavenworth,(Army Brat),when I was told I had a bad mouth and cussed too much. Heard from family and friends,(do as I say not as I do),all kinds of bad things about cussing.  Now I find out instead of being this: 

 

280?cb=20180507074936

 

 

I'm this: 

 

anntrinneg3bxv4g3ahk.jpg

 

 

Sweet! All you ****ers: 

 

tenor.gif?itemid=8663299

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9 minutes ago, China said:

 

Take your supercilious twaddle and vacate this thread, you pediculous rakefire!

My good sir, you have quite loquaciously afflicted me.  I must respectfully request you refrain from future incursions on my character lest I be forced defenestrate you upon our next encounter to obtain satisfaction.

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1 minute ago, PokerPacker said:

My good sir, you have quite loquaciously afflicted me.  I must respectfully request you refrain from future incursions on my character lest I defenestrate you upon our next encounter.

 

I care not for the thoughts of a furfuraceous fopdoodle.

 

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