Dr Richard Stephens, of Keele University, UK, was a co-recipient of the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain. Since then, his work on swearing has continued, and he’s the lead author of a 2018 paper for the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise (Volume 35, March 2018, Pages […]
Tag: curse
Is “MacBeth Effect” research cursed?
By happy, horrified tradition, theater folk hesitate to name a certain Shakespeare play, for fear bad things will then happen. A noted psychology study that (albeit not being a theatrical endeavor) did explicitly name that play now seems to have had something bad happen. A new study brings (and is!) the bad news: “Out, Damned […]
The Effect of Swear Words on Referees
Do swear words have predictable effects on football referees? A team of Austrian scientists tackles that question in a study called May I Curse a Referee? Swear Words and Consequences. Stefan Stieger, of the University of Austria, together with Andrea Praschinger and Christine Pomikal, who describe themselves as “independent scientists”, published their report in the Journal of Sports […]