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Swearing and the Brain

In real life (that is, when I'm not toning things down when writing articles such as this), I am occasionally given to bursts of "sailor-speak." That is, I from time to time pepper my language with the occasional expletive of the four-letter (or longer) variety. I am not apologetic about this, given the neighborhoods I grew up in, but a lot of people are. Many people feel that there is something inherently WRONG with swearing, and they tend to look down on people who do it.

So just on the off chance that there are one or two of those individuals in the reading audience, what do you say when you are working around the house, miss the nail you were aiming at, and accidentally bash your thumb with a hammer? Do you say "Oh fudge" or "Oh snit," or do you find yourself instinctively reaching for the more colorful, similar sounding versions of those epithets? Be honest now.


The brain treats swear words differently than other words

Your brain has both motor and premotor areas, both of which have some control over speech and writing. A part of the brain called Wernicke's area handles the recognition of and processing of spoken words. The prefrontal cortex handles things like personality and determining what is appropriate social behavior. In most people, the left hemisphere of their brains is in charge of language, while the right hemisphere is in charge of the emotional content of language. Processing language is known as one of the "higher" brain functions, while processing emotion is considered one of the "lower" or more primal and instinctual brain functions.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the brain have revealed that swearing tends to affect the "lower" regions. Strong language gets "tagged" emotionally as we grow up, because our parents or teachers or peers react more strongly to certain words than others. If they react negatively to these words, that emotion gets stored in our brains along with any meanings of the words. So instead of processing "swear words" as a series of sounds or phonemes (as we do other words), the brain stores these "emotionally charged" words as whole units. As a result, the brain does not need the left hemisphere's help when processing them. Instead it relies on the limbic system (which controls memory, emotion, and behavior), and the basal ganglia (which controls motor functions and impulse control) to process the "swear words."

In a very real sense, therefore, swearing is a motor activity with a strong emotional content. This is one reason that most people remember swear words four times better than they do other words. fMRI studies have shown that the brain tends to "struggle" with itself when a person swears, these two areas competing for which will "win" in the moment.

Swearing is also affected by some disorders



Warning: Although this form of pain relief has been shown to be scientifically effective, if you are sitting in church and develop a blinding headache, we do not recommend its use there. While it may, in fact, work to relieve your headache, the "side effects" of this particular treatment methodology may not be all that you desired.

Juliette Siegfried



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  • Comment #1 (Posted by Ruby)
    This article is entirely narcissistic in its viewpoint. Swearing may not be harmful to the individual when the individual is alone. But what are the effects of having curses directed toward you? And what effect does swearing have on a person's ability to develop means of preventing frustration in the first place?
  • Comment #2 (Posted by Wanda)
    I just want you to know that I do not use curse words, even in a bad situation. Neither do my friends and family. I do believe that cursing is offensive and displeasing to God. See Ephesians 4:29, Matthew 15:11. It is a sad commentary on our society that such filth is thought to be beneficiary.
  • Comment #3 (Posted by LaGina Kemper)
    I've read about this before. It's very interesting.
  • Comment #4 (Posted by Joyce)
    I swear uncontrollably when angry, or in severe pain, or if I feel I've been made a fool of. I can't help it. I hate myself for doing it, and feel such self-loathing afterwards. I always resolve not to do it again - but inevitably, I do. But it's not until I say the words that I feel relieved! I suffered severe brain damage as a child - paralysed down the right hand side of my body, due to damage on the left of my brain. What I've read in this article seems to fit.