It’s not just you – there’s a reason swearing is so satisfying.
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Articles on Swearing
Displaying 1 - 20 of 33 articles
Swearing can raise our pain threshold.
Politicians dropping the f-bomb tend to be seen as acting out of emotion, but the way we use taboo language is often about what we can accomplish by violating rules.
As political parties spar, insults and catchphrases are adopted, appropriated and reappropriated in a dizzying verbal arms race.
Drinking, swearing and social transgressions can lead to good things.
Long regarded as guardians of morality, women who swore were often policed and punished. But whether protesting or parodying, they have used bad language in creative ways.
From 16th-century playwrights to ‘The Good Place,’ wordplay has found clever ways to get around uttering profane and blasphemous language.
A cognitive scientist observes that the words that bother college-age Americans today can cause harm.
Dealing successfully with rudeness can help people develop resilience and confidence.
As calls are made to ban swearing at work, in public and even at home, a linguist comes out fighting for harsh language.
Ethical decisions deliver less emotional impact when presented in a second language, study finds.
But the British soon got the hang of profanity.
It’s a multi-lingual effect.
Australia has a reputation for swearing. Yet this sits at odds with laws that criminalise offensive words.
Business Briefing: are our standards dropping in the workplace?
The Conversation22.9 MB (download)
Our workplaces are becoming less formal. But there were some advantages to the old formality.
They can be b***y difficult people but politicians want you to know they give a ts, even if they sometimes talk b*****s.
Be careful about where you try this out.
The pervasiveness of profanity in popular culture underscores the absurdity of punishing people for using words broadcast on our screens and heard in our music.
Swearing has often been associated with a lack of intelligence, but studies show that it could be a cleverer use of language than we thought.
As a British judge has just discovered, swearing’s fine … until you do it in the wrong place.
Top contributors
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Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney
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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Keele University
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Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
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Director, Australian National Dictionary Centre, Australian National University
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Professor of Information Technology and Organisation, University of Sydney
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Professor, Neuropsychology, University of Westminster
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Professor, University of Sydney
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Lecturer in Russian, Queen Mary University of London
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Professor of Linguistics, University of York
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Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Associate Professor and Director, Research Centre for Children and Families, University of Sydney
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MBA Director & Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University
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Professor of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London
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Lecturer in Management (Business Ethics, Professional Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility), University of New England
