This Is The Ultimate Curse, According To Science: Mathematician Creates Whole New Offensive Term Using Computer Algorithm
A mathematician has created an entirely new swear word based on a list of 186 offensive terms, and called it “the world’s latest swear word.”
Sophie Maclean, a student at Kings College London, discovered that ‘banger’ is the ultimate offensive term, or ‘ber’ for short.
The researcher fed a list from popular ‘bad words’ to a computer model, which then found that the supreme word starts with the letter ‘b’, has four letters, and ends in ‘-er’.
Mclean found that when no input was provided, the model made up words like ‘ditwat’.
Most people have their favorite swear word, but a mathematician used his coding skills to create a new one that’s considered the world’s worst swear word.
maclean said BBC scientific focus: ‘I think none is as satisfying as ‘fuck’ when you stub your toe, or ‘shit’ when you realize you forgot your parents’ birthday. But they both feel like they could be pretty good insults to people.
In this work, the mathematician used a Markov chain, which is a model that describes a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends solely on the state reached in the previous event.’
This means that the results are created based on previous inputs, which is what Mclean did in the study.
He gave the model a list of profanity in English compiled by Ofcom, which Ipsos MORI commissioned to research to help them understand public attitudes towards offensive language on TV and radio.
Mclean manually reviewed the list and narrowed it down to 45 of the most offensive words based on public attitude.
The list was sent to the algorithm, which landed on specific entries which it then used to create the new swear word.
The researcher fed a list of 186 offensive terms to a computer model, which then found that the supreme word starts with the letter ‘b’, has four letters, and ends in ‘-er’ (stock).
Some frown when swearing, but Mclean told the BBC science has found evidence that yelling “cuss words” can reduce pain, and other studies have found using those words to be a sign of intelligence.
Researchers at Keele University’s School of Psychology determine that swearing may have a “pain-reducing effect”.
The team believes that swearing triggers our natural “fight or flight” response.
The volunteers immersed their hands in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating the taboo word of their choice.
The researchers found that the volunteers were able to keep their hands submerged in the ice water for a longer period when repeating the swear word, establishing a link between swearing and increased pain tolerance.
Although numerous studies find benefits in the use of obscene language, some contradict these findings.
Profanity has also been linked to honesty and creativity, as people choose powerful words to express their emotions.
Doing so activates an area of the right brain known as the “creative brain.”
Timothy Jay, emeritus professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has studied swear words for more than 40 years, said CNN: ‘The advantages of swearing are many.’
“The benefits of swearing have only just emerged in the last two decades, as a result of a lot of research on the brain and emotions, along with much better technology for studying brain anatomy.”
There has been a myth that such language is ‘vocabulary poverty’, but in a 2015 study, Jay put this idea to rest.
He and his team also found that taboo words were positively correlated with the Big Five personality traits of neuroticism and openness and negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Neuroticism and openness have also been found to correlate with honesty, suggesting that those who swear may also be the most honest.
