Do You Swear A Lot? Good News: You’re More Intelligent Than Your Polite Friends

According to a study called ‘Taboo word fluency and knowledge of slurs and general pejoratives: deconstructing the poverty-of-vocabulary myth’, which was published in the Language Sciences Publication, it’s not true that those of us who frequently swear are lazy with our language, or, as they put it, the assumption that ‘taboo words are used because speakers cannot find better words with which to express themselves: because speakers lack vocabulary’.

‘We cannot help but judge others on the basis of their speech,’ the study reads. ‘Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have an adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves.’

Volunteers in the study were asked to do fluency tests, given two minutes to list as many swear words as they could. They were then asked to list animals and ’emotionally-neutral’ words in another two minutes.

It turned out that those who were more fluent at swearing were also more fluent at listing animals and emotionally-neutral words. We’re taking this as full license to swear whenever we want.

Kristin and Timothy Jay, the study’s lead researchers, said: ‘Speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately.

‘The ability to make nuanced distinctions indicates the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge.’

Take that, motherf***ers!

What do you think of the findings? Will you swear more now or do you think it’s abhorrent? Let us know @marieclaireuk