"This is a Big #%4&ing Deal": Profanity, Emotion and Politics

Fun (and interesting if you are a psychologist) stuff from yesterday's signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. After Joe Biden introduced the President he took a moment to whisper in Obama's ear. The live mic (just barely) caught what he said to the President:

"This is a big f**king deal."

And the media went all abuzz about it.

As you may or may not know, I have an interest in the psychology and spirituality of profanity. In fact, in the current issue of The Journal of Psychology and Theology I have a paper on profanity and "The Seven Words You Cannot Say on Television."

In many ways, Joe Biden's swearing is expected. We often curse when we feel emotional. For example, my friend Mel recently reminded of a study (which I posted about last year) that showed an association between swearing and pain tolerance. Specifically, if you swear after you hit your thumb with a hammer it might actually help deal with the pain. In short, swearing seems to be intimately involved with our Limbic System where pain, pleasure and other emotions originate in the brain. So when we feel really, really emotional, like slamming a finger in the car door or signing historic health care reform, sometimes that old Limbic System just blurts things out. And, if you are Joe Biden, you don't have a lot of verbal restraint going for you in the first place.

Regarding politics and swearing, Slate has up an interesting historical essay--WTF Did Biden Just Say? by John Dickerson--on the topic. According to Dickerson, there is quite a Presidential history with swearing as "Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Bush and Clinton all used rough language." Even Jimmy Carter. Ronald Regan, apparently, kept it clean, even going as far as spelling "hell" as "h--l" in his personal diary. Now that is restraint. Too bad we couldn't get his take on yesterday's historic events. He just might have let a f-bomb slip...