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People who frequently swear – either in person or on social media – are the most honest people of all, a surprising new study has found.
“Swearing is often inappropriate but it can also be evidence that someone is telling you their honest opinion. Just as they aren’t filtering their language to be more palatable, they’re also not filtering their views, ” explains Cambridge University lecturer Dr David Stillwell.
He is one of the co-authors of the study based on surveys by an international team of researchers and published in the medical journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
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Among those cited in the study is Donald Trump who sometimes swore on the campaign trail to emphasize points and by doing so was considered by his supporters to be more genuine than his rivals.
The profanity survey involved extensive personal interviews, analysis of social media interactions and even lie detector tests. Again and again, those that spoke or wrote the most swear words were found to be least likely to be lying. Those same people frequently used language patterns shown to be related to honesty, such as pronouns like “I” and “me.”
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Among those surveyed in the United States, the most profanity comes from the north-eastern states such as New Jersey and New York while the people least likely to swear live in southern states such as South Carolina and Tennessee.
Obscene language may be considered inappropriate and unacceptable in polite company but it is increasingly creeping into common use, especially on cable television and streaming shows. Movies are also full of swear words as the audience and the authorities become more tolerant of vulgar language.
That marks a huge departure in acceptable levels of profanity in the media when you consider that back in 1939 when Clark Gable spoke the famous line “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” in the film “Gone with the Wind,” the producers were swiftly hit with a $5,000 fine for indecency.
