It's not a joke. The new study conducted by researchers from the school of psychology at Britain's Keele University and published in journal NeuroReport, shows cursing could increase pain tolerance and heart rate, thus decrease the feeling of pain. Richard Stephens, one of the researcher, told Reuters that the trigger for the study is to figure out why swearing is a historical,universal human linguistic phenomenon. 64 volunteers participated the experiment, which required them to put their hands in a tube of ice water as long as possible till they started to curse. Then they were asked to repeat the experiment but with moderate language. The researchers found swearing made volunteers tolerate ice water longer. The reason? Not clear yet, but what is clear, said Stephens, is that "swearing elicits both an emotional response and a physical one, too. This response could shed light on why the age-old practice of cursing developed, and still is in existence today