Study shows swearing is linked to intelligence

HOW many of us have joined the very exclusive group – The Thirteen Amp Plug Club? You know who you are…

When you are rushing around in the morning to get ready for work and you step barefoot onto an upturned plug, wait a few seconds before you experience the searing pain, then you spill coffee down your crisp white shirt, your car keys have gone awol and your phone is on 10 per cent battery, there is only one word for it.

Before 10:00am you have already uttered tons of expletives without even realising it.

Your colleagues may think you’re a lost cause who swears too much, but curse away as studies suggest this may be a sign of intelligence.

You may have heard that people who are fluent in profanities are overcompensating for a lack of vocabulary, lower intelligence and are of a lesser social status.

Psychologists Kristen and Timothy Jay conducted a study in 2015 that deconstructed this myth.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves.”

This study concluded that there is a positive correlation between people who could name the most swear words within a minute and score the highest on an IQ test.

This demonstrated that an extensive range of swear words is a sign of ‘rhetorical competence’ rather than the attempt to disguise verbal shortcomings.

Stephen Fry once said: “The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a f*****g lunatic.”