When it was announced Matt Hancock was headed for Down Under to join this year's cast of I'm A Celebrity, a series of sweary responses exploded from MPs, journalists, and more - with GMB's Susanna Reid forced to apologise live on air after the Mail's Andrew Pierce branded the former Health Secretary a "d***head."
While profanities can cause shock and upset depending on the circumstances, swearing can actually be used as a 'powerful and intelligent' tool for communication and self-expression, scientists have said. In the past, the taboo of swearing has traditionally been viewed as a sign of low intelligence or poor vocabulary, with little research into the topic.
But the latest findings suggest otherwise. Scientists have found that swearing can have a positive impact on relationships when used to show signs of solidarity or joy. Using such strong words can also make people appear more persuasive, can make people laugh, and help others deal with certain confrontational situations such as road rage or pain, and improve their performance during exercise, the experts say.
However, the discovery comes with an obvious warning that people need to be careful regarding when they do choose to swear - keeping in mind who they are swearing in front of and where - if you don't want to come across as "offensive, inappropriate and objectionable".
"Swearing was long dismissed as a topic of serious research because it was assumed to be simply a sign of aggression, weak language proficiency or even low intelligence," researchers from the UK and Sweden said.
"We now have quite a lot of evidence that challenges this view, prompting us to reconsider the nature and power of swearing."
Scientists, from the University of Keele, Ulster University, and the University of Westminster, examined 100 academic papers on swearing and found it was "undeniably different from and more powerful than other forms of language use" - and may even form from a different part of the brain compared to regular speech.
They identified several "generally positive purposes of everyday swearing" - including the expression of emotions such as "joy, anger, excitement and fear" and the expression of "camaraderie [and] solidarity" among friends.
It can also be used for "humour and verbal emphasis", according to the study, published in the journal Lingua.
Swearing can "possess an emotional force that is not shared by other language forms" because it can "produce emotional arousal" in the listener, while "swearing can also increase the credibility and persuasiveness of both messages and speakers".
While the new evidence highlights that swearing has a multitude of physiological, cognitive, emotional and interactional effects, where its power derives from is still open for debate.
Psychologist Dr Richard Stephens of Keele University said: "If you ask most people to explain the power of swearing, they will probably give answer consistent with what we call the 'soap and water' hypothesis.
"The idea is people have some kind of childhood experience of being chastised by an adult for swearing, and the idea then is that the memory for this unpleasant encounter stays with the person and is forever associated with swearing.
"Unfortunately, the evidence for this in the current research is weak, so the jury remains out on the question of where swearing gets its power from."
In one of the studies that focused on swearing and pain tolerance, participants were found to be able to keep their hands in a bath of ice water for longer if they swore, suggesting the use of expletives helps deal with pain.
Meanwhile, a 2014 study suggested politicians who swore in blog posts allowed them to be seen in a more positive light by potential voters, who were "positively surprised" to see them express themselves using informal language.
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