When people hurt their toe, they often say a bad word. Psychologists in the UK tested if bad words can make us stronger. People held their body up off a chair with their arms.

Every two seconds, they said a bad word or a normal word. When they said a bad word, they could hold on longer. The scientists think bad words help us stop holding back. But do not say bad words to other people!

Many people swear when they hurt themselves, and psychologists have found that swearing may actually help. Researchers at Keele University in the UK ran two experiments with 88 and 94 adults. Participants did a "chair push-up," lifting their body off a chair seat with their arms and holding the position as long as possible.

Every two seconds, they repeated either a swear word of their choice or a neutral word. In both experiments, people held on longer when swearing. By combining data from 300 people, the team found that swearing seemed to work by increasing a sense of flow, distraction from discomfort, and self-confidence. So swearing may help people "let go of the brakes" and push themselves harder.

Swearing is usually regarded as impolite, but research led by Stephens at Keele University suggests it can have measurable benefits. An earlier study by his team, published in 2009, showed that swearing helped people tolerate pain longer when they placed a hand in ice water. In a newer paper in American Psychologist, published online in December 2025, the team examined physical strength.

In two preregistered experiments with 88 and 94 participants, people performed a chair push-up, supporting their body weight on their arms, while repeating either a swear word of their choice or a neutral word every two seconds. Both experiments showed longer holding times in the swearing condition. To explain why, the researchers proposed state disinhibition, a temporary loosening of the self-restraint people usually impose on themselves. A combined analysis of 300 participants found that flow, distraction, and self-confidence mediated the effect.

However, these mediators were self-reported after the task, so they may not have preceded the improvement. The task measured only brief endurance, participants could probably guess the hypothesis, and most were adults recruited from a university campus, so results may differ across languages and cultures.