The Power of Profanity: The Meaning and Impact of Swear Words in Word of Mouth

Abstract

Swearing can violate norms and thereby offend consumers. Yet the prevalence of swear word use suggests that an offensiveness perspective may not fully capture their impact in marketing. This article adopts a linguistic perspective to develop and test a model of how, why, and when swear word use affects consumers in online word of mouth. In two field data sets and four experiments, the authors show that relative to reviews with no swear words, or with non-swear-word synonyms (e.g., super), reviews with swear words (e.g., damn) impact review readers. First, reviews with swear words are rated as more helpful. Second, when a swear word qualifies a desirable [undesirable] product attribute, readers’ attitudes toward the product increase [decrease] (e.g., “This dishwasher is damn quiet [loud]!”). Swear words impact readers because they convey meaning about (1) the reviewer and (2) the topic (product) under discussion. These two meanings function as independent, parallel mediators that drive the observed effects. Further, these effects are moderated by swear word number and style: they do not emerge when a review contains many swear words and are stronger for uncensored and euphemistic swear words (e.g., darn) than censored swear words (e.g., d*mn). Overall, swear words in reviews provide value to readers—and review platforms—because they efficiently and effectively convey two meanings.