Swearing Increases Pain Tolerance

Swearing can help you beat pain, but only if you do not use foul language very often, according to researchers at UK's Keele University. Swearing helps most people better tolerate pain by eliciting an emotional response leading to 'stress-induced analgesia'.

Researchers found that people who did not swear regularly could hold their hands in the ice water for 140 seconds when they swore, twice as long as when they used a neutral word. While people who usually swore up to 60 times a day could hold their hands in the water for only 120 seconds when they used foul language, the same as when they used a neutral word.