The Science of Swearing and What it Says About Our Values

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2018

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kids get grounded for swearing, and bad words are banned from television... but why is that the case if most adults swear anyway? Linguist and cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen says that swearing can be funny, cathartic, and even useful! In this rated-PG episode, he explains how the science of swearing can help us understand how our brains process language, and what the worst words tell us about our culture. And the episode is squeaky clean: no swearing included!

Additional resources from Dr. Benjamin Bergen:

Other studies and resources discussed:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm curious is swearing good or bad? Well it's like asking is nuclear power good or bad right? I mean it's
0:06.7	powerful there are some good things that you can do with it there are some bad things that you can do with it
0:11.7	and harnessed appropriately by the right people
0:14.1	at the right time in the right place you could do amazing things with it
0:17.3	uh... harnessed inappropriately can do damage Hi, I'm Cody Gough with the clean and wholesome Curiosity.com.
0:32.0	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:33.0	Today we're going to talk about the science of swearing, without actually swearing.
0:38.0	Every week we explore what we don't know because Curiosity makes us smarter.
0:41.0	This is the Curiosity Podcast. We're not going to say any bad words in
0:47.2	this episode but we are going to talk about swearing. And that's important
0:51.0	because swearing is a thing.
0:52.8	I mean, we all know somebody who does it.
0:55.3	Yeah, know somebody.
0:56.5	But at the same time, why do we swear?
0:59.4	Why can't people say certain words on TV?
1:02.0	And why do kids get in trouble for swearing?
1:04.0	Is it even bad for them?
1:05.0	Today's guest is an expert in the science of swearing.
1:08.0	Benjamin Bergen is a professor of cognitive science
1:10.0	at the University of California San Diego, where he directs the Language and Cognition Laboratory.
1:16.0	He's also the author of What the F.
1:18.0	What Swaring reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves.
	...

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