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gone35 · 2014-07-26 · Original thread
There is indeed evidence of significant cross-cultural differences in both [1,2,3]. Cursing itself is universal; but its contextual, relative social acceptability as offense and interjection varies quite a bit across societies.

Put in another way: even cursing that you might perceive as self-evidently "aggressive and rude" --in the limbic sense of the word-- might be perceived quite differently by someone from another culture. And viceversa (eg American-style drunken loudness, to think of one).

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Swearing-A-Cross-Cultural-Linguistic-S...

[2] http://www.gelfand.umd.edu/science.pdf

[3] http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/15/1317937111.full...

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