It's Calculated: How mathematics helped discover the perfect swear word

Which one swear word is the most pleasurable to yell when you’re angry? Yes, there are many we cannot write here. Yet with this one, we can! In a mathematical milestone, a researcher in England has constructed a formula that, using a list of 186 unpleasant phrases, generates a brand-new curse word she calls “the world’s ultimate swear word.” At King’s College in London, where she plans to earn a PhD in number theory, Sophie Maclean, an MSc student, discovered that “banger,” or “ber,” is the most insulting word, according to BBC Science Focus. However, how did she come up with the most offensive word? Let’s take a look. Also read: Duck Off No More: Why Apple won’t autocorrect the world’s favourite expletive The algorithm A computer model that the researcher loaded with a list of well-known “bad words” discovered the ultimate term, which starts with the letter “b,” includes four characters, and ends in “-er.” When no inputs were provided, Mclean discovered that the model created phrases like “ditwat.” While speaking to BBC Science Focus, Mclean said, “I think neither is as saying as a ‘f**k” when you’ve stubbed your toe or a ‘s**t’ when you realise you’ve forgotten your parent’s birthday. But both feel like they could be quite good insults for people.” In this work, Mclean utilised Russian mathematician Andrey Markov’s popular model “Markov chain,” which depicts a series of potential events in which the probability of each event depends solely on the state obtained in the preceding event. Accordingly, her work in the study involved creating findings based on prior inputs. She gave the model a list of expletives created by Ofcom, which hired Ipsos MORI to conduct research to determine how people feel about inappropriate language on TV and radio. Based on the attitude of the general population, Mclean carefully combed through the list and reduced it to 45 of the most insulting words. The algorithm received the list and applied certain inputs from it to arrive at the new curse term. Mclean classified them into three categories: somewhat offensive (cow, pissed, arse), moderately offensive (s**t, arseh**e), and severely offensive (too rude for this page). Also read: History of Swear Words on Netflix is a crash course on how linguistic excesses snaked their way into pop culture Perception changed The general public’s perception of foul language has changed in New Zealand. The annual report of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), which was released in December 2022, states that there has been a change in the public’s perception of language that offends us. According to Pete Barnao, the BSA’s head for communications and interactions, “Audiences are more relaxed over many swear words, particularly the F-word, but less tolerant of racial or cultural slurs.” The survey claimed that over the past year, we as a country appeared to have loosened our stance on terms like “b*****d,” “d**k,” “God,” “h*e,” “Jesus Christ,” “s**t,” and “w…er.” Pain-lessening effect Some people dislike swearing, but Mclean told the British outlet that there is scientific proof that screaming out “bad words” helps lessen pain, and that uttering such words is a sign of intelligence in a study published in Science Direct. According to BBC Science Focus, this phenomenon is known as the hypoalgesic effect, which is defined as “an action or sensation that lessens pain stimuli.” The School of Psychology at Keele University conducted research that found swearing could have a “pain-lessening effect.” The research team holds that cursing sets off our “fight-or-flight” reaction. Volunteers repeated their chosen forbidden words while submerging their hands in an ice bath for as long as feasible. Researchers established a connection between swearing and an improvement in pain tolerance when they discovered that the volunteers could hold their hands in the icy water for longer periods of time when repeating the swear word, according to a Cleveland Clinic article. Also read: From ‘ant’s pants’ to ’lolcat’: Here are some of the words added into the Oxford Dictionary The debate Despite the fact that many studies support the benefits of profanity, some research contradicts these conclusions. Since people like to use strong words to convey their emotions, profanity has often been associated with sincerity and creativity. As a result, the “creative brain”—a region of the right brain—is activated. The benefits of cursing are numerous, according to Timothy Jay, a retired professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has researched swearing for more than 40 years. “The benefits of swearing have just emerged in the last two decades, as a result of a lot of research on brain and emotion, along with much better technology to study brain anatomy,” he told CNN. The concept that such language exhibits a “poverty of vocabulary” has been debunked by Jay in a study from 2015. He and his team also discovered that banned terms were negatively correlated with conscientiousness and agreeableness and favourably correlated with neuroticism and openness, two of the Big Five personality traits. Additionally, it has been discovered that neuroticism and openness are correlated with honesty, which means that individuals who curse may also be the most honest. With inputs from agencies