From swearing to skiving or getting drunk, breaking the rules has lots of upsides, as a wide-ranging new book explains

Man behaving badly (Image: Josef Koudelka/Magnum Photos)

WHETHER it’s skiving, sex, speeding or drinking alcohol, everything fun seems to have a warning attached. So why does behaving badly feel so good?

Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University, UK, may not sound like the obvious person to tackle the science of deviance until you discover that he has won an Ig Nobel prize for his work on swearing. And since swearing is a particular vice of mine, I was keen to read about any advantages fruity language might confer.

InBlack Sheep, Stephens ranges far and wide, surveying the psychological and physiological research into our character flaws. He writes with the glee of someone at a theme park, which is fitting since he tells us that a ride on a roller coaster is beneficial for asthma.


He also includes chapters on those other roller-coaster rides: love and sex. Who knew, he says, what fun scientists had been having: “We’ve seen how sexual arousal lights up the brain’s reward pathways in the same way as drugs and watching your football team score… a demonstration, if one was needed, that sex is officially fun.”

You feel that Stephens has pored over each research paper in its entirety. He is not afraid to pick apart poor methodology, praise ingenuity or point out fun details. Describing one study linking alcohol and creativity, he writes: “while having their eight shots of vodka, the volunteers watched a DVD of one of my favourite Disney movies – Ratatouille“.

And the benefits of cursing? Stephens suggests that it is key to in-group social cohesion and that people who know more swear words are more fluent linguistically – great news for my fishwife tendencies. His own research suggests swearing helps us cope with physical agony.

But the painkilling effect becomes less potent for habitual swearers. Bugger.

Black Sheep: The hidden benefits of being bad Richard Stephens Hodder & Stoughton

This article appeared in print under the headline “Just do it!”