Perceptions of Profanity on Twitter: Watch Your D@mn Language

Abstract

Social media permeates our lives and is used for a variety of communications. As it becomes even more integrated into personal lives, businesses, and communities, it is increasingly important to fully understand how one is perceived, such as how one is perceived when using profanity, on social media. Profanity has serious connotations and is widely used both in oral and online communication, yet the effects of using profanity are not extensively studied. As maintaining one’s “personal brand” is important, it is key to understand how all word choice effects that personal branding. This study investigates how the gender of the message source and the type of profanity (i.e. religious, excretory, and sexual) used impacts the message source’s perceived credibility on the popular social media platform Twitter. The findings indicate a closing gender gap in perceptions of profanity usage and confirm that the specific profanity type used has significant effects on the perception of the message source.