The casual utterance of four-letter words among colleagues, a.k.a. "social swearing", allows co-workers to bond, while "annoyance swearing" (dropping an expletive in the context of doing business) can cut the tension in the office.

跟同事在一起时随意说几句脏话被称为“脏话社交”，这种行为会增进同事间的关系；而“牢骚脏话”，即在工作时爆出几个脏字，则可以缓解办公室的紧张气氛。

When the group was relaxed and happy, the swearing was clearly of a social kind, a sign of being "one of the gang." Under conditions of very low stress, swearing was almost entirely of the social variety.

当一群人开心放松的时候，随口说出的脏话自然只是社交功能，这表明他们是“自己人”。在压力很小的情况下，说脏话几乎都是在为社交服务。