We tend to avoid painful sensations. Painful stimuli, well, they hurt! The body’s response to painful stimuli is a natural and important one, which not only acts right away to prevent us from hurting ourselves but also acts in the long-term, teaching us not to put ourselves in that situation again. A study released this week by the Keele University of Psychology tested a set of undergraduates and found that swearing made pain more tolerable in a significant number of participants. Their reason for this phenomenon was that swearing might elicit aggressive or angry emotions, which in turn could start up our fight-or-flight response. The fight or flight response, due to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, leads to an adrenaline surge, increased blood flow to the muscles, etc. It has been known to make the body forget about pain while it focuses on more important things. The study adds that the heart rate tends to be higher when people are in the act of cursing; but it is quite difficult to use that data to claim that the high heart rate is a result of the cursing activating the fight or flight response. Swearing is innate taboo, so the heart rate could even go up because the subjects have a slight rush or fear to swearing constantly and in front of people they do not know.
Now, while I believe that cursing causing the fight-or-flight response is a pretty good explanation for why swearing might make pain more tolerable, I don’t think it is the reason. When we feel a painful stimulus, we produce a myriad of responses. We yell, scream, gasp, swear, and jump (funny if you think about it). Then, afterward, we tend to rub the area, unless it is a burn or something of that type. Rubbing is what is referred to as a gating mechanism. Our body has developed its own way to deal with pain that does not necessarily have to do with fight or flight. Nerves are like roads, and there can only be so much congestion; therefore, we have a limited capacity to perceive (don’t confuse that with sense) pain. Pathways in the spinal cord are in charge of controlling traffic when faced with multiple painful stimuli, providing the brain with information about the most important sensations. For example, you stop feeling your sore quad when a knife is stuck into your arm. This is because clearly the knife if your arm poses a greater threat. Similarly, although on a smaller scale, rubbing your sore knee is a gating mechanism. It helps the pain to go away because you are providing a sense of touch to the same area that is in pain. Icing and heating work the same way.
So, what is my point? My point is, I would argue that the reason swearing makes pain more tolerable is because it is a useful gating mechanism. Swearing is not appropriate; it is not something that we can do whenever we want, wherever we want (not to say that people do not). The act of swearing has that edge to it that may be just enough of a distraction to switch on a simple gating mechanism. So the next time you stub your toe on a curb or a misplaced shoe, whip out the best curse word that you’ve got, and maybe it will give you a little bit of relief.
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