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Frankly, We Do Give a Damn: The Relationship Between Profanity and Honesty
Gilad Feldman1, Huiwen Lian2, Michal Kosinski3
1Department of Work and Social Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Social Psychological and Personality Science
|December 1, 2017
Summary
Profanity use is linked to greater honesty. Studies show that using profanity correlates with less lying and deception at individual levels and higher integrity at societal levels.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Conflicting views exist on the profanity-dishonesty relationship.
- Norm-violating behaviors like profanity and dishonesty may share common causes.
- Profanity's potential to express genuine feelings suggests a negative link to dishonesty.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between profanity and honesty.
- To determine if profanity use predicts deceptive behavior.
- To examine profanity's association with integrity across different levels of analysis.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Lab experiment assessing profanity behavior and lying (N=276).
- Study 2: Linguistic analysis of real-life Facebook interactions (N=73,789).
- Study 3: Analysis of aggregate profanity and integrity indexes across U.S. states (N=50).
Main Results:
- A consistent positive relationship was found between profanity and honesty.
- Profanity use was associated with reduced lying and deception at the individual level.
- Higher societal levels of profanity correlated with increased integrity.
Conclusions:
- Profanity is not indicative of dishonesty; rather, it is linked to honesty.
- The findings challenge the notion that profanity is solely a negative behavior.
- Profanity may serve as a marker for authenticity and integrity.
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