The winner of the IG Nobel prize has proved that swearing temporarily make a person stronger
MOSCOW, may 5. /TASS/. Cursing out loud, people are better doing exercises on strenuous exercise — intense pedaling the bike harder and compress the expander. To this conclusion came a group of British and American psychologists, who will present on Friday its report to the conference of the British psychological society in Brighton. The study is not yet published in peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Its author, Richard Stevens of Kolskogo University, together with colleagues in 2010, received the IG Nobel prize, famous for award for original or funny scientific studies for other work, which showed that swearing can relieve pain.
As the materials for the presentation Stevens at the disposal of TASS, a scientist and his colleagues suggest that swearing, man own stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which is activated under stress. Based on this, Stevens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may also for a short time to make a person stronger.
To test this hypothesis, the group conducted two experiments: one in 29 people fulfilled the standard for such experiments test for intense anaerobic exercises on the exercise bike, in another 52 volunteers were clutching the expander, to measure the strength of hand grip. First, the subjects performed the tasks, repeating aloud a curse, and then, after a pause, did the same thing, repeating a neutral word.
As a result, scientists have found that cursing, indeed, showed significantly better results — however, as noted in the summary to the report, “curses did not affect the cardiovascular or autonomic nervous system, which we evaluated using heart rate and its variability, blood pressure and electrical activity of the skin”. “So how and why does swearing affect the strength and pain threshold remains to be seen. We do not yet fully understand the full force of battle,” said Stevens, who was quoted by the conference Committee.
Judging by the presentation, Stevens suggests that, perhaps, the very nature of jobs disguises the impact of curses on the stress response of the body, which scientists have observed in previous experiments. As alternative hypotheses, studies have examined the distracting effects of expletives, which can reduce subjective pain intensity and thus improve performance in sports tests and “General release” in which a person is less sensitive to the risk of overexertion during exercise.