Question

Speech on how bad language can alter bad behaviour

Answer 1

All sorts of emotions are associated with the sound of swear words as we are growing up, says Jeff Bowers at the University of Bristol, who carried out the research.

The results of his study, Bowers says, throw some light on a question often debated by linguists and psychologists: do the words you say affect the way you think and perceive the world?

Bowers wired volunteers up to a machine that would assess their stress levels by measuring their sweat. He then asked them to say swear words and their euphemisms aloud.

Even though everyone involved had volunteered for the study and was fully briefed as to what was involved, and therefore presumably not likely to be offended, participants showed higher stress levels when they were asked to swear than when asked to state the common euphemism.

Bowers says the difference in stress levels between swear words and euphemisms shows that we don't only respond to the meaning of a swear word. The furore in December last year when James Naughtie made an unfortunate slip of the tongue while introducing culture secretary Jeremy Hunt on the Today programme demonstrates his point.