Poll: Swearing and intelligence

[muse-13-bliss]

im moderately intelligent, got it tested by a psychologist and shit
she gave me kii kat..OOO, and oh henry once ...good times..
lol
but yea, i swear once in a while, all though i try not to, i try to find a way of insulting people using big words that they wont understand, but other smart people will,

makes me feel good

 

[Angerwing]

I'm 134 and I swear a lot.

My ex-PC technician (his a dude that works in a large company in technical assistance and he's the director there) is also quite intelligent, earns a lot by using his skills and he swears a lot.

I'm the smartest person I know, and I swear often. Mainly I swear out of anger, to add emphasis, or for comedic value. I swear for no other reason (there aren't many other reasons I can think of).

At least I know I'm more humble than you are, if you call yourself the smartest, then either you are full of yourself, or you know very few people.

What use do I have in being humble? I don't need to degrade myself so others feel better, or so they like me. I have enough people who like me. I'm extremely proud of myself, and I think degradation is a worse sin than pride. Who are you to judge me?

Degradation? It's called humility.

Great people are humble. Jerks are full of themselves. History shows this countless amount of times.

Define 'great people'. Those who achieve greatness or those who are humble? Because HISTORY (not fairy tales) shows us that the biggest winners were most often jerks. And why can't I be a jerk? I'm happy with that. As long as I don't have to water my self down for some arbitrary sensibility.

Great people - those who help more than harmed ON PURPOSE. By helping I mean also advancing the world technology and trying to bring peace.

John Paul II, Dalai Lama, Einstein, people fighting for justice in the times of communism (Lech Wałęsa, to name the best known for me) and Nobel Peace Nominees and others that somehow improved many lives or helped the humanity.

On the other hand, many of the communistic leaders or people starting wars show little humility.

Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini Benito or Fidel Castro are jerks and they were/are as full of themselves as it's possible.

I'm not saying you can't be a jerk. I consider myself a jerk, too. But I'm humble enough not to gloat about everything.

Is it really gloating when I'm putting my honest opinion in a thread where it asks my intelligence? And hey, I can name some famous jerks who I mostly respect as well! Beethoven, Edison, Tesla, and uh, Newton.

 

[Lenny Magic]

one fucking hundred and one. or some shit like that. since IQ isn't really all its cracked up to be.

 

[Gmano]

Every IQ test ive ever done placed me between 138 and 170.
The average is 145-155.

And yeah, i do swear, a fuckton.

 

[Sark]

To insult someone I don't swear, as that is usually a sign of stupidity and unoriginality. Althouh I will swear if something sucks or in pain or whatever. Use as an exclamation rather than insult.

 

[teisjm]

Intellegent people swear in an intellegent way, dumb peopl eswear in a dumb way.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Everyone that has ever done an IQ test needs to stop spouting off 140, 120, 150! Those tests are all biased towards knowledge in a specific area and are useless to determine intelligence. E.g if the test focuses on Spanish heritage or the scientific title for different flowers than a botanist or a Spaniard would do well. If it focuses on the history of North America then those same people wold instantly become dumber. Frankly there isn't enough questions in the world to give you a number for your IQ based off your general knowledge.

There is also Wisdom vs Intelligence in that your IQ should not change once you reach maturity but your knowledge of the world around you will increase with age. Also 100 IQ is meant to be the average yet everyone always mysteriously has a higher IQ than that. If you did not know that then feel free to take 20-30 points off your next IQ test, for being gullible.

Intellegent people swear in an intellegent way, dumb peopl eswear in a dumb way.

Any evidence to back that up?

 

[Kaelan]

Actually, I tend to find the opposite is true. I don't know an intelligent person I admire who doesn't swear. Being against it seems to me like a flimsy attempt at trying to get a false sense of superiority over other people, usually made by people who aren't actually that bright themselves, for exactly that reason. It's the kind of shallow, trivial detail people who actually are intelligent don't bother concerning themselves about.

You know the story about Samuel Johnson and the first English dictionary. When it was complete he was waited upon by various delegations of people to congratulate him, particularly by a delegation of respectable ladies of London.

"Dr Johnson", they said: "we are delighted to find that you've not included any indecent or obscene words in your dictionary". "Ladies", said Dr.Johnson, "I congratulate you on being able to look them up".

Once you understand that story you understand everything you ever need to understand about the sort of person who says things like "swearing is indecent" or "a lack of vocabulary".

To anticipate the question,

Any evidence to back that up?

Only anecdotal, which is of course all we have in these cases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM

 

[Shock and Awe]

I took a "official" IQ test at a phycologist's office in 3rd grade and got 126 I believe, but that was a long time ago.

 

[-AC80-]

yes but swearing was made for a reason like when i turned up at manchester airport and went to check in and they said to me they have over sold the seats (meaning they sold MY seat) so now some guy is now on holiday now insead of me. now that is a prime time to swear.

 

[Sewblon]

I only swear when talking to myself. The only time I took an IQ test it said my IQ was 122, but it was just a free test on the internet so I don't know if it was credible.

 

[shaltir]

yahoo news said swearing makes pain more tolerable...so all the smart kids cuss when they stub a toe.

 

[Vern]

My intelligence quotient is 146, and I swear. I don't see anything wrong with it as long as it's not overused. There's a fine line between appropriate swearing used to accentuate a statement, and just using it because you're too retarded to think of anything better to say. A good example is a man I worked with for one day who was dumber than a box of hammers dropped into a tub of rocks who managed to say fuck four times in one sentence. I'm certain I heard him say fuck more times in that four hours than I usually hear in three months.
At a point, words completely lose their meaning, so you have to be careful when you use curses.
When I call someone a ****, or a jackass, or a shit sucking donkey whore, I mean it, and they know I mean it.

 

[Chipperz]

OK, I know I don't have the widest vocabulary, I'm actually fairly stupid compared to people like rocket scientists and brain surgeons which, clearly, everyone on the Escapist is, but I swear because it adds emphasis, and while talking in general.

Also, I like to think that I still have an emotional IQ (or whatever they call it now) higher than people who block out their swear words, so I guess I win that?

Wow, I think I might be the first person here to actually admit their stupidity rather than pick a number between 130 and 150...

 

[Nemorov]

Completely unrelated... I just heard something on the news about a study saying that swearing actually increases your pain tolerance. So when you drop a piano on your face, screaming fuck really does make you feel better...

Incidentally, I'm in the 130's and I sometimes pepper my conversations with more cussing than adjectives. That gets awkward around the family... but I realized a long time ago that my grandmother is a way sicker fuck than I'll ever be. So yay. =D

 

[TheBXRabbit]

I have no clue what my IQ is, but I like to think I'm pretty smart, and I curse enthusiastically. Although to be honest, I only reveal my full repertoire of foul language whenever people who DON'T condone swearing are in the vicinity (e.g. Mormons). Otherwise I only use foul language to denote surprise or pain.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I don't think theres a link between swearing an intelligance at all. I mainly use swear words as an adjectives, to modify my point and portray anger

 

[Iron Mal]

I swear like a trooper and I (like many others) don't think there is any link between your choice of expletives and your intelligence (I also disagree with the statement that swearing is a sign of a limited vocabulary, flaunting fancy words is just a sign that you don't know what context to use them in).

Also, IQ tests are often cited as being culturally biased and so cannot be seen as an accuerate or representative measure of intelligence.