For generations, athletes have instinctively grunted, shouted, or blurted out well-timed curse words during moments of maximum effort. From elite powerlifters to weekend warriors pushing through a final set of push-ups, the behavior has long been dismissed as locker-room theatrics.
However, a new study suggests those sudden outbursts may actually be far more significant than they appear. According to the research, swearing doesn’t just release frustration—it may unlock measurable physical strength by temporarily freeing the mind from internal restraints.
That is the central finding of a new paper published in American Psychologist, which reports that swearing during intense physical exertion reliably improves performance. Significantly, the research goes beyond simply confirming the effect.
Drawing on multiple preregistered experiments and an aggregated dataset of 300 participants, the authors argue they have identified a psychological mechanism that helps explain why swearing works. According to researchers, swearing causes a shift into a disinhibited mental state that allows people to “not hold back” when maximum effort is required.
“In many situations, we hold ourselves back and, in doing so, limit our opportunities for success,” the researchers write. “Here we propose swearing as a cheap, readily available intervention that appears to encourage us to ‘not hold back’ and instead to ‘go for it’ a little more, with positive benefits on physical performance.”
The research builds on more than a decade of research suggesting that swearing or taboo language can enhance physical output. Earlier studies had already shown that swearing can increase grip strength, boost cycling power, and extend how long people can hold challenging bodyweight positions. However, what remained unclear was why swearing could have such a consistent effect on the body.
In this latest research, psychologists from Keele University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville set out to answer that question directly.
Central to the research is the concept of state disinhibition, a temporary psychological condition in which people become less constrained by self-monitoring, social norms, and internal doubts.
According to researchers, this shift allows attention, confidence, and determination to be redirected toward the task at hand—especially when that task requires maximal effort.
To test the idea, researchers conducted two new preregistered experiments, each using a repeated-measures design. Participants were asked to perform a physically demanding “chair push-up” task—lifting and holding their body weight on their arms for as long as possible—while repeatedly vocalizing either a self-selected swear word or a neutral word. Each participant completed both conditions, allowing the researchers to directly compare performance within the same individual.
The results were strikingly consistent. In both experiments, participants held the position significantly longer when repeating a swear word than when repeating a neutral word. The effect replicated earlier findings from the same research group and aligned closely with independent studies published in recent years.
However, researchers did not stop at measuring performance outcomes. After each trial, participants completed a battery of psychological measures designed to probe their internal experiences. These included assessments of psychological flow, distraction, humor, self-confidence, emotional state, and perceived freedom from constraints.
Across experiments, swearing reliably increased several of these variables—particularly feelings of focus, engagement, and confidence. While individual mediation analyses produced mixed results, the picture became clearer when the researchers combined data from all three preregistered studies, producing a total sample size of 300 participants.
In that aggregated analysis, three psychological factors emerged as significant mediators of the swearing effect: psychological flow, distraction from intrusive thoughts, and self-confidence. Together, these variables explained a meaningful portion of the performance boost observed during swearing, lending strong support to the state disinhibition hypothesis.
Simply put, swearing appears to help people perform better by quieting the mental brakes that often limit effort. By disrupting social norms and self-conscious restraint, taboo words push attention outward and forward—away from doubts, discomfort, and overthinking—and toward the immediate physical goal.
Researchers contend that this explanation conforms with well-established models of brain function, particularly the balance between the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral activation system (BAS).
The BIS is thought to regulate caution, self-control, and avoidance of social mistakes. When it dominates, people may hesitate or subconsciously limit effort. The BAS, by contrast, promotes goal-directed action and reward-seeking behavior.
Swearing, the researchers argue, may temporarily suppress inhibition while amplifying activation—tilting the psychological balance toward action rather than restraint. This helps explain why similar effects have been observed with other vocal behaviors.
Previous studies have shown that shouting can increase grip strength, grunting can enhance tennis serve power, and even saying “ow” can raise pain tolerance. However, what sets swearing apart is its unique social and emotional weight. Because taboo language violates norms, it may be especially effective at short-circuiting internal monitoring systems.
Despite the consistency of the results, researchers caution that expectancy and placebo effects are difficult to eliminate. Because participants are fully aware when they are swearing, their beliefs about its potential benefits may partially influence performance.
They also note that while the aggregated mediation model explained about 14 percent of the variance in performance, physical strength is shaped by many interacting neural, muscular, and psychological factors.
Nevertheless, researchers argue that even modest psychological shifts can have outsized effects on tasks that require maximal effort.
“Strength is influenced by both neural and muscular factors, and small changes in motivation, focus, and confidence can substantially impact exertion,” researchers note. “Our theoretical position is that swearing brings about a state of disinhibition, temporarily tending toward behaviors that are undercontrolled rather than overcontrolled.”
The findings suggest that swearing could serve as a simple, low-cost intervention in settings ranging from athletics and rehabilitation to situations requiring assertiveness or courage. Unlike specialized equipment or training regimens, swearing requires no preparation and is universally available.
That does not mean the researchers are advocating for unrestrained profanity in every context. Social norms still matter, and the effectiveness of swearing likely depends on timing, authenticity, and individual comfort.
However, in moments when performance matters more than decorum—an all-out lift, a final sprint, a demanding physical therapy session—science suggests that a well-chosen expletive may be doing more than blowing off steam.
Ultimately, the study makes a compelling argument that the boundary between mind and body is far thinner than we might assume. Language, emotion, and social conditioning can directly influence how much of our physical potential we are willing, or able, to use.
In that sense, the research reframes swearing not as a lapse in self-control, but as a psychological tool—one that momentarily releases us from the invisible constraints we carry into moments of challenge.
“Our findings suggest that swearing, a simple and widely accessible form of language, can help counteract the tendency to hold back,” researchers conclude. “In doing so, it empowers individuals to perform closer to their full potential and, ultimately, to achieve greater success.”
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com