“Swearing – the Language of Life and Death”

Richard Stephens has published a life and death account of  research about swearing:

“Swearing – the Language of Life and Death,” Richard Stephens, The Psychologist, vol. 26,  pt. 9, September 2013, pp. 650-653.

In 2010, Professor Stephens and two of his students were awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize. The citation reads:

Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University, UK, for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain.
[REFERENCE: “Swearing as a Response to Pain,” Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston, Neuroreport, vol. 20 , no. 12, 2009, pp. 1056-60.