It depends on why they are using profanities. If it is because they think it is "kewl" or that it will help them get into a better crowd or that it is how they should talk, generally this would correlate at least with a subdued level of intelligence. If they use it to enhance sentences or for emphasis in expressing a point then this would most likely correlate to a person with less subdued intelligence... or at least someone who has not fully developed a good vocabulary yet.
seriously though, only to a certain extent. I mean, people who swear or use slang every other word, yes. However, all my friends are smart people and we've been known to do our fair share of swearing. Not too much though. I think it's just that people try to be "cool" or "gangsta" with clothing, slang, etc.
If it's used in general conversation then it's a pretty good indicator.
If nothing else it does a good job of expressing someone's attitude, which is a decent predictor of how they'll use what (little) intelligence they have. Or how they won't.
seriously though, only to a certain extent. I mean, people who swear or use slang every other word, yes. However, all my friends are smart people and we've been known to do our fair share of swearing. Not too much though. I think it's just that people try to be "cool" or "gangsta" with clothing, slang, etc.
Im relatively intelligent and i curse like a motherb**** but its not to look cool or anything like that its just the way i speak. I suppose it has something to do with influences from TV and the like but hey, I dont think that swearing is all that bad really, its only offensive if you take it offensively. Personally i think i would have been much more fun to curse in the 17th century before spelling was formalised because people came up with insults like **** rascally sheep biter" and they mostly ended in a duel which is always fun.
EDIT: that 17th century insult was from a shakespeare play (I think its twelfth night) but apparently the first word has to be censored.
it seems like a regional thing...Ive heard many people mention the fact that around where I live (Boston) people swear all the time....and if your around it all the time, its not that big of a deal and you swear all the time...
I swear all the damn time.....in fact I dont even see the problem with it...
Oftentimes yes. But intelligent people are capable of excessive cursing as well. It just isn't as common, because intelligent people tend to understand that cursing is more impactful when it is used sparingly rather than profusely.
Using specific anecdotes is an absurd way to refute a CORRELATION. Of course there are some exceptions- "My mother went to Columbia and she swears"- but what the topic creator is referring to is a correlation, which I'm sure, exists.
I'm very intelligent, but if I stub my toe, screaming YOU MOTHER F***** is the first thing that comes to my mind naturally. I don't know why it is, it just feels good when you say it.
Of course not. I know some highly intelligent people who curse like sailors. In fact, I would say that people who think that only idiots swear probably aren't very intelligent themselves......
I voted no, some of the smartest men I have known curse regularly not excessive but regularly meaning withing almost every conversation they have there is at least 1 or 2 F words a few S words and such yet these guys go to MIT and a few of my friends who do this went to Stanford
Apparently most of the posters are having trouble understanding correlation. The TC is polling whether or not excessive swearing is correlated with lower intelligence, meaning- someone who swears often is more likely to have a lower IQ than someone that doesn't swear often. STOP using individual examples to refute an alleged correlation! Correlations allow for exceptions. A mentally challenged person that lacks the ability to speak may have a very low IQ, but since they can't speak they never swear. Similiarly a Harvard Professor may swear all the time and have a very high IQ. Those two examples can coexist with the negative correlation between profanity and intelligence (it is a negative corrrelation because as one variable increases- the number of swears per sentence for instance- is accompanied by a decrease in the other variable- IQ). Hopefully this has been completely cleared up and no one will post ANECDOTES to support their assertions anymore.
Log in to comment