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Study Finds Link Between Profanity and Honesty (neurosciencenews.com)

A team of researchers from the Netherlands, the UK, the U.S. and Hong Kong report in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science that people who use profanity are less likely to be associated with lying and deception. Neuroscience News reports: Profanity is obscene language which, in some social settings is considered inappropriate and unacceptable. It often refers to language that contains sexual references, blasphemy or other vulgar terms. It's usually related to the expression of emotions such as anger, frustration or surprise. But profanity can also be used to entertain and win over audiences. As dishonesty and profanity are both considered deviant they are often viewed as evidence of low moral standards. On the other hand, profanity can be positively associated with honesty. It is often used to express unfiltered feelings and sincerity. The researchers cite the example of President-elect Donald Trump who used swear words in some of his speeches while campaigning in last year's U.S. election and was considered, by some, to be more genuine than his rivals. The international team of researchers set out to gauge people's views about this sort of language in a series of questionnaires which included interactions with social media users. In the first questionnaire 276 participants were asked to list their most commonly used and favorite swear words. They were also asked to rate their reasons for using these words and then took part in a lie test to determine whether they were being truthful or simply responding in the way they thought was socially acceptable. Those who wrote down a higher number of curse words were less likely to be lying. A second survey involved collecting data from 75,000 Facebook users to measure their use of swear words in their online social interactions. The research found that those who used more profanity were also more likely to use language patterns that have been shown in previous research to be related to honesty, such as using pronouns like "I" and "me."

6 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Profanity and Honesty by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 4, Funny

    A lot of Slashdotters are really honest folks. Good to know. ðY

    1. Re:Profanity and Honesty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      And kernel project leaders.

  2. other applicable links to profanity. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Funny

    in computer science the application of expletives has also been scientifically correlated. For example:
    Ruby Programming: profanity causes Ruby to slowly reveal itself as nothing more than an elaborate and desparate cry for help. It is in fact not a programming language at all.
    Git: A bell curve of profanity and blasphemy can pinpoint the exact number of phrases required to successfully identify the team member who broke the build.
    iptables: cannot be run without profanity and is in fact compiled into the code itself
    Email: while its long been understood that profanity is a critical component of all email infrastructure, it may be curious to know that science has found Exchange servers in particular often default to routing mail based on the deafening curses against god almighty uttered by the admin.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  3. Let me be the first to say it. by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Funny

    No fucking kidding.

  4. Honestly, Fuck Trump by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    n/t

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. Re: The two seem very related... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where can I buy these precision bushings? I must have them.