Can swearing help you with exercise or other difficult physical tasks?
according to A new study published Thursday Per American Psychologist, dropping that F-bomb does more than just express your frustration with an intense physical situation. This can help you focus more, let go of everything that is holding you back and help you finish the task.
The study suggests that “swearing, a simple and universally accessible linguistic tool, can serve as an effective intervention to counter tendencies to decline and improve performance,” says Richard Stevens from Keele University’s School of Psychology.
The study was conducted by four researchers from two institutions: Richard Stevens, Harry Dawber, and Christopher Richardson from the School of Psychology at Keele University in England; and Nicholas B. Weschmuth of the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The group conducted two experiments to determine whether swearing can enhance physical performance and whether the act facilitates a state in which individuals are less likely to retract their behavior.
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In both experiments, the researchers asked participants to lift and support their body weight using only their hands on the seat of the chair for as long as possible.
Participants chose an expletive word and a neutral word and were asked to repeat the two chosen words every two seconds. The results found that using an expletive significantly increased the amount of time participants were able to maintain their body weight, versus using a neutral word.
The second experiment doubled the first with 94 new participants, but introduced spectator apathy, which is associated with the removal of inhibitions. The idea was that people doing hard workouts in the gym might worry about how others think of them, only to realize that these people are too busy with their own workouts to care what others think. According to the study, acknowledging others’ indifference can boost your efforts and boost your performance.
Ultimately, the experiments supported the idea that swearing allowed participants to sustain longer. Using an expletive allowed them to break through their previously imposed limitations and reach their goal, thus increasing self-confidence and promoting a positive psychological flow state.
So I swear it might improve your next workout.