F@#k Pain! The Effect of Taboo Language and Gesture on the Experience of Pain

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13664143
AutoresAutumn B Hostetter (0000-0002-9610-8619, Kalamazoo College, autor correspondente), Dominic Knight Rascon-Powell (Kalamazoo College)
Ano2022
Volume127
Fascículo2
Páginas577-593
Data de publicação2022-09-08
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPsychological Reports (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00332941221125776
PMID36075480
OpenAlexW4295078754
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas24

Swearing has been shown to reduce the experience of pain in a cold pressor task, and the effect has been suggested to be due to state aggression. In the present experiment, we examined whether producing a taboo gesture (i.e., the American gesture of raising the middle finger) reduces the experience of pain similar to the effect that has been shown for producing a taboo word. 111 participants completed two cold pressor trials in a 2 (Language vs. Gesture) × 2 (Taboo vs. Neutral) mixed design. We found that producing a taboo act in either language or gesture increased pain tolerance on the cold pressor task and reduced the experience of perceived pain compared to producing a neutral act. We found no changes in state aggression or heart rate. These results suggest that the pain-reducing effect of swearing is shared by taboo gesture and that these effects are likely not due to changes in state aggression

Aggression · Audiology · Gesture · Linguistics · Taboo · Task (project management · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism