In a 2016 study titled “Frankly, we do give a damn: The relationship between profanity and honesty,” some smart fucking scientists and researchers like Gilad Feldman from Maastricht University, Huiwen Lian from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Michal Kosinski from Stanford University and David Stillwell from University of Cambridge, UK, concluded that the more you use words like “shit,” “fuck,” “damn,” “asshole,” “shit-ass,” “son of a bitch,” and “motherfucker,” the more honest you likely are.
These smart fucking scientists say swearing is most often used to express people’s feelings and emotions, which suggests that people who swear more often—and therefore express their true fucking feelings—are more likely to portray themselves in an honest-as-shit way.
“We set out to provide an empirical answer to competing views regarding the relationship between profanity and honesty. In three studies, at both the individual and society level, we found that a higher rate of profanity use was associated with more honesty. This research makes several important contributions by taking a first step to examine profanity and honesty enacted in naturalistic settings, using large samples, and extending findings from the individual level to a look at the implications for society.” Fuck yeah!
They also ranked swearing and honesty by state. The highest motherfucking profanity rate goes to Connecticut, which also came in second place for most honest state. Utah came in the shittiest place—last—with the least amount of profanity, which is no fucking surprise.
According to the profanity index, the most honest state is Iowa and the least honest state is Georgia, if you can believe that shit.
What does all this bullshit mean? I have no fucking clue, but apparently I can’t tell a fucking lie.
The Related Rabbit Hole
