Relating Tabooness to Humor and Arousal Ratings in American English: What the F*** Is so Funny?

This study gathered tabooness, humor, and arousal ratings to provide a resource for researchers to better understand the sources and characteristics of the strong emotions generated by taboo words. A total of 411 participants aged 18-83 were recruited via online platforms, and all participants rated the same 264 words on tabooness, humor, and arousal. Analyses indicated that tabooness and humor ratings were positively related to each other, and both were predicted by arousal ratings. The set of ratings included here provides a tool for researchers using taboo stimuli, and our findings highlight methodological considerations while broadening our understanding of the cognitive and linguistic nature of highly emotional language.PMID:38357874 | DOI:10.1177/00238309241228863
Source: Language and Speech - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Source Type: research