What better way could you think of ending off your argument by saying your opposition is, “Complete and utter bull#@*!”. Obviously Showtime’s Penn and Teller do not hesitate to use this word to demonstrate to their audience the nonsense of their challenger. But is it an effective method of persuasion?
According to Scherer and Sagarin’s, 2006 experiment on this technique, a light swearing increases a speaker’s persuasiveness and has no effect on the speaker’s credibility. But why, why would humans believe someone who is prone to using obscenities to express oneself? The Persuasive Power of Swearing agrees that it all depends on a person’s passion and intensity; the audience sees this expression of words as a way to show their beliefs and passion on a certain subject. It will almost seem as if you are so engulfed in your arguments and opinions that you cannot help but swear as you would when talking about it everyday. This causes the audience to feel a connection with your thoughts and is capable of putting real emotion behind your words, as swearing is a part of humans tendencies.
According to some statistics the amount of swearing increased by 94.8% during the family hour on television, which means swearing is a normal occurrence in our lives. So it is apparent that swearing is human, and humans tend to believe humans, and perhaps the reality of Penn and Teller’s show is the reason they are so effective in persuading their viewers.
One must keep in mind the levels of severity of the swear words chosen to put across a point. Of course going off on a rampage of curse words would not be effective. But some say you shouldn’t use swears at all because it will throw off your audience. But that audience isn’t being thrown off, their attention is being grabbed. And how can grabbing someone’s attention not be employed in any persuasive technique?
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