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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. Trump honest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simply saying "some people think he's honest" is not an objective measure of honesty.

    In trump's case he regularly says the opposite of what he says the week month years before, so he's not honest by any measure. Google [trump contradicts trump] and you'll get so so many examples.

    I did a financial check on his election declaration and found none of the numbers matched real accounts released elsewhere. And often the lies are screaming fraud (e.g. He claims Scottish golf course makes millions in profit, has $300 million investment, yet UK accounts show its loss making and has half that investment. Investors money is siphoned off to HQ, borrowing on many projects is 120%+ of the assets best assessed value and income isn't able to pay the interest). I even ran a few revPar numbers to estimate/test the plausibility of the accounts he's hiding and many were 10x exaggerated. This is Madoff level fraud.

    Then there's the Pee memos.
    https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html

    e.g. p15, 10th August 2016, "Kremlin engaging with several high profile US players, including STEIN, PAGE and (former DIA Director Michael Flynn) and funding their recent visits to Moscow.

    Who is Michael Flynn? In August he was a nobody, yet Putin was grooming him. Trump didn't pick Michael Flynn until November 18th, months *after* that date. How would Kremlin know Trump would pick Flynn if Kremlin wasn't involved in the picking?

    Time says Trump is a liar. Either because he himself says the opposite later, or because it reveals actions that could not be explained by Trump being honest. Like the Kremlin picking a pro-Kremlin General 3 months before Trump picks him.

  2. Re: Fucking bullshit ... by arth1 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Bill Clinton grabbed plenty of pussy in office. But I guess it's ok to do it and lie about it as President?

    What's wrong with this country was that he felt he had to lie about it. Sexual acts done by consenting adults is not against the law, nor the public's business.
    Harassment and hate speech, on the other hand, is.

  3. Objective fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Replying to my own thread with an example. You can objectively determine Trump is a liar, simply by comparing the incompatible numbers claimed in multiple places:

    http://therealdeal.com/la/2016/11/04/property-tax-appeals-may-show-trumps-financial-disclosures-to-be-overstated/

    "At 40 Wall Street, for example, Trump wrote in his book “Never Give Up” that the building makes approximately $20 million a year in rent and was worth $500 million in 2008, the year the book was published....On financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Republican presidential candidate listed the property’s income at more than $5 million, the highest category on the form....But the forms he filed with the city Tax Commission to appeal 40 Wall Street’s property taxes show that after mortgage payments and other costs, the building’s cash flow in 2014 was $104,000. During the previous three years, in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, it had negative cash flow of $5.5 million."

    Now you might say "well he made a mistake" or "his understanding of the numbers has improved....", or the latest numbers not yet revealed show a total turnaounrd etc. but this is the norm with Trump numbers. They're all made up.

    I notice that when I crunch fraud numbers, the fraudsters always use a simple multiplier, and the real numbers concealed as best possible. These two factors suggest the fraud is deliberate. The combination of concealment of real numbers, and the fraudulant public numbers always being a multiplier of the real numbers. Mistakes are random, you're as likely to find an overestimate as an underestimate in mistakes. Not so with fraud.

    I think it's difficult for fraudsters to keep track of the lies they've told, so they use the real numbers adjusted by a simple multipler. Usually it's a x10 or x100, x1000 or x2 to keep it simple to convert in their head from real to fraud number.

    And to hide the truth they hide the real numbers (like not revealing your tax returns in an election).

    Trump exhibits both traits, suggesting he's aware of his fraud.

    1. Re:Objective fraud by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1, Informative

      First, you know that the pee memos were made up by 4chan, right? And that story's inclusion in a document (the one you linked) written by the fake news company behind all of the "1 simple trick to get you to click this link" ads does not exactly say good things about their sources or verification?

      And second...

      the building makes approximately $20 million a year in rent and was worth $500 million in 2008 ... the building's cash flow in 2014 was $104,000. During the previous three years, in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, it had negative cash flow of $5.5 million. ... .On financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Republican presidential candidate listed the property's income at more than $5 million, the highest category on the form

      I put those back in order for you. Still don't see it? Try this version:

      2008, height of the boom: +20 million.
      2009-2010, "the end of the world": ???
      2011-2013, 3 years waiting for the recovery: negative 1.8 million (average)
      2014, back in black, but just barely: +104,000
      2015, healthy, but not back to pre-bust levels: +5 million

      I'd be more skeptical about these numbers if not for the thousands of stories in the financial press about the crash and recovery of CRE that map out this exact same roller coaster in all of the markets in the US.

      As for Michael Flynn, Wikipedia considered him noteworthy starting January 5th, 2010.

      P.S. Calling your own bias "objective" is the hallmark of a liar.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
  4. Re:Good for the gooser.... by dbIII · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's sudden grabbing and there's fondling after a breathy "Happy Birthday Mr President".
    One is a crime due to lack of consent and the other is between consenting adults.

    It's only the land of the nipple at the superbowl and places under Sharia law where I'd have to explain the difference between sexual assault and sex to someone over 15.

  5. Re:The two seem very related... by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Informative

    Who said anything about believing him? He's just saying what everyone wants to hear, that's all, over here in Europe we've had a lot of experience with populist loudmouths, it's about time you got one too.

    They're very entertaining and ok to keep the powers that are in check, but you don't elect them as president! You don't make the court jester king, are you nuts?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.