The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008

The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008

Evidence is accumulating that American culture has become more individualistic since the 1950s. In the present research, we focused on one plausible manifestation of individualism, the use of swear words in cultural products. We examined trends in the use of the seven words identified by George Carl...

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Main Authors: Jean M. Twenge, Hannah VanLandingham, W. Keith Campbell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-08-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017723689
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spelling doaj-5c797bce61d647c5ac283bb2900018802020-11-25T03:45:23ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402017-08-01710.1177/2158244017723689The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008Jean M. Twenge0Hannah VanLandingham1W. Keith Campbell2San Diego State University, CA, USASan Diego State University, CA, USAUniversity of Georgia, Athens, USAEvidence is accumulating that American culture has become more individualistic since the 1950s. In the present research, we focused on one plausible manifestation of individualism, the use of swear words in cultural products. We examined trends in the use of the seven words identified by George Carlin in 1972 as the “seven words you can never say on television” in the Google Books corpus of American English books from 1950 to 2008. We find a steady linear increase in the use of swear words, with books published in 2005-2008 twenty-eight times more likely to include swear words than books published in the early 1950s. Increases for individual swear words ranged from 4 to 678 times ( d s = 6.58-45.42). These results suggest that American culture has become increasingly accepting of the expression of taboo words, consistent with higher cultural individualism.https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017723689
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Jean M. Twenge
Hannah VanLandingham
W. Keith Campbell
spellingShingle Jean M. Twenge
Hannah VanLandingham
W. Keith Campbell
The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
SAGE Open
author_facet Jean M. Twenge
Hannah VanLandingham
W. Keith Campbell
author_sort Jean M. Twenge
title The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
title_short The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
title_full The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
title_fullStr The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
title_full_unstemmed The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008
title_sort seven words you can never say on television: increases in the use of swear words in american books, 1950-2008
publisher SAGE Publishing
series SAGE Open
issn 2158-2440
publishDate 2017-08-01
description Evidence is accumulating that American culture has become more individualistic since the 1950s. In the present research, we focused on one plausible manifestation of individualism, the use of swear words in cultural products. We examined trends in the use of the seven words identified by George Carlin in 1972 as the “seven words you can never say on television” in the Google Books corpus of American English books from 1950 to 2008. We find a steady linear increase in the use of swear words, with books published in 2005-2008 twenty-eight times more likely to include swear words than books published in the early 1950s. Increases for individual swear words ranged from 4 to 678 times ( d s = 6.58-45.42). These results suggest that American culture has become increasingly accepting of the expression of taboo words, consistent with higher cultural individualism.
url https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017723689
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