Overview
- The Australian Journal of Linguistics study asked participants to rate 55 terms for personal offensiveness and perceived social taboo.
- Racist terms topped the hierarchy of slurs, with the N-word identified by participants as the single most taboo word.
- Out of the 20 most offensive terms, 16 were slurs rather than conventional expletives, while words like bloody, bugger, bastard and bullshit were widely seen as acceptable.
- Female respondents rated gendered insults targeting women, such as slut and whore, as significantly more offensive than male respondents did.
- Researchers note the small, non-representative sample limits generalization, even as the pattern matches wider cultural shifts and stricter penalties for racial vilification.