We know, from other studies, that two physical pains experienced in quick succession have an entirely unexpected effect on the way we perceive them. One of the most astounding experiments to demonstrate the equivalence between social and physical pain looks at the way two pains that are experienced in quick succession tend to interact. For most of human history, experiencing loss or rejection could have been as detrimental to your survival as appendicitis or a broken leg.
Experiments with acetaminophen10 and marijuana11 (not at the same time) show that identical analgesics can relieve both social and physical pain. Social pain, feelings of being rejected or excluded, is as real as physical pain. (Jan.“The relationship between physical pain and emotional states is definitely a complicated one, made more so by the fact that we all experience something called social pain. Agent: Carrie Plitt, Felicity Bryan Associates (U.K.). “But of course, even among workmates, swearing and abuse aren’t always taken well.”) Readers probably won’t be surprised to find out that British women are as likely to swear as British men, that women’s use of fuck has increased fivefold since 1990, and that swearing helps people “communicate emotions.” Given the book’s subtitle, the science here underwhelms and the flippant way that Byrne handles it may have readers employing their own choice vocabularies.
(“Swearing really can break down barriers,” she writes. Byrne suggests that swearing can help lessen both physical and social suffering, and that “stronger swear words are stronger painkillers.” She also begins to discuss the topics of women’s use of foul-language and swearing in the workplace, but fizzles out. In one such experiment, volunteers were asked to hold their hands in buckets of ice water and researchers found that swearing enabled the participants to endure the pain for a longer period of time. Attempting to show how swearing has evolved from a linguistic “shortcut” into a “powerful instrument” with physiological benefits, Byrne describes a number of experiments in neuroscience, psychology, and animal behaviorism. Science writer Byrne aims to give the practice of swearing “the respect it fucking deserves” in this shallow study, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
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