People Who Swear More Have a Larger Vocab

Well I’ll be fudged. A new study has found that people who swear actually have a larger vocabulary than those who don’t.

They’ve quashed those presumptions that people who swear are lazy or uneducated.

The study also found that foul-mouthed people are more confident than people who don’t swear, yuuuuus!

The science of it all sounds pretty interesting. Participants were asked to say as many swear words as they could think of in 60 seconds. They were then asked to name as many animals as possible in the same amount of time. And those who swore the most, knew the most animals as well.

This was enough for the two psychologists Kristin and Timothy Jay to link swearing with a person’s vocabulary.

They said: ‘Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have an adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves.'

‘Speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately. The ability to make nuanced distinctions indicates the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge.’

So swearing is not only fun, but good for the vocabulary too, score!

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