Journal article

Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study.


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Author list: Sulpizio, Günther, Badan, Basclain, Brysbaert, Chan, Ciaccio, Dudschig, Duñabeitia, Fasoli, Ferrand, Filipović Đurđević, Guerra, Hollis, Job, Jornkokgoud, Kahraman, Kgolo-Lotshwao, Kinoshita, Kos, Lee, Lee, Mackenzie, Manojlović, Manouilidou, Martinic, Del Carmen Méndez, Mišić, Chiangmai, Nikolaev, Oganyan, Rusconi, Samo, Tse, Westbury, Wongupparaj, Yap, Marelli

Publication year: 2024

Journal name in source: Behavior research methods

Volume number: 56

Issue number: 4

Start page: 3794

End page: 3813

Number of pages: 20

ISSN: 1554-351X



The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.


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Last updated on 2025-26-03 at 15:48