The medicinal power of swearing has also been found to transcend some cultural barriers.
Researchers in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain speculated that native Japanese speakers might not see the same benefits from cursing as they do not have the same cultural history of swearing and a pain response.
The results were that cultural background had no impact on the swearing’s analgesic properties.
In addition to reducing physical pain, there has also been positive research on the effect of swearing to reduce emotional pain.
A pair of researchers writing in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that people dealing with rejection had their feelings of emotional pain reduced by swearing.
They fit this into a larger amount of overlap found between methods for reducing physical and emotional pains.
