Verbal Swearing Attenuates the Effects of Social Pain
Full article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1243545
Swearing can act as an adaptive response to physical pain, decreasing pain sensitivity and increasing pain tolerance. Given the considerable overlap between social and physical pain, it was expected that swearing would be similarly effective in reducing the physical and psychological effects of social pain. We used a 2 (exclusion-prime) x 2 (swearing) independent groups design, operationalising swearing and physical pain in a manner similar to Stephens and Umland (2012). The researcher was blind to the exclusion condition, but not the swearing condition. University students (N=70; 34 female) first wrote about an experience of exclusion (or inclusion; randomly assigned) to manipulate social pain. Participants then repeated a self- selected swear word (or neutral word) while holding their hand in room- temperature water for two minutes. Measures of perceived social pain, social needs satisfaction, and mood were then recorded. Finally, participants completed a cold-pressor task, holding their hand in ice-cold water until physical pain was felt. During this task, a nonsense word was repeated aloud by all participants (to prevent internal swearing) and perceived physical pain was then rated. No main effects of swearing or social pain were evident for perceived physical pain (self-rated) or physical pain threshold (cold-pressor latency). However, swearing moderated the perceived physical pain relationship as well as the perceived social pain relationship, such that exclusion-primed, non-swearers reported greater levels of social and physical pain compared with exclusion-primed swearers and inclusion- primed swearers and non-swearers. A similar pattern was found for pain sensitivity. Frequency of everyday swearing did not further moderate the effects. Results further support pain-overlap theory and offer further evidence that both pains may be functionally analogous.
Presented at the 26th APS Annual Convention, May 22-25, 2014 in San Francisco, C.A., USA.
