Marchex graphic.jpg

This graphic from Marchex shows a breakdown of the states with residents that cursed the most/least.

(Marchex)

Apparently a lot of New Jersey residents didn't get soap in their mouths growing up.

A study from the mobile advertising technology company Marchex finds that the Garden State ranks third in the country where people are most likely to curse. Ohio and Maryland, respectively, finished ahead of New Jersey.



As for which state's residents are least likely to curse, Washington takes the cake in that category; they curse only once about every 300 conversations. No. 1 Ohio curses once about every 150 convos, according to the report. Massachusetts, Arizona, Texas and Virginia round out the least likely to curse rankings.

Marchex’s data and research team examined more than 600,000 phone calls over the past 12 months. They specifically tracked calls placed by consumers to businesses – arguably when people are perhaps the most frustrated – across 30 different industries. The institute flagged curse words, and then linked the frequency of those words with all 50 states.

The study also took note of the words “please” and “thank you.” South Carolina earned the top honors as the “most courteous” state, followed by North Carolina, Maryland, Louisiana and Georgia.

Going beyond the state-by-state breakdowns, the study found that 66 percent of curses come from men and that callers are twice as likely to curse in the morning as the afternoon or evening.