Most Influencers Should Swear Off Profanity

In social media videos, swearing tends to send viewers elsewhere

Based on the research of Vijay Mahajan

If you spend time watching online videos, you might feel like covering your ears. For some influencers, dropping F-bombs and other swear words is part of their brand, and their followers embrace it.

But new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin suggests most creators might think twice about using profanity. The reason: On average, it reduces user engagement.

For an influencer producing 100 videos a year, 14 off-color words per video could cost up to $79,000 in YouTube revenue, find Vijay Mahajan, professor of marketing, and former McCombs doctoral student Mahdi Niknejad Moghadam, now teaching at The University of Texas at Tyler.

But profanity’s effects can vary by context, the study shows. It offers guidelines for when dirty words are especially damaging — and when, occasionally, they’re not.

“There are no FCC regulations to monitor social media influencers right now,” says Mahajan. “This research gives platforms, influencers, and content sponsors a clearer picture of profanity’s impact on user engagement.”

To Curse or Not To Curse?

Despite widespread profanity among influencers, no research had examined its consequences among the viewers they’re trying to influence, Mahajan says. “Profanity can be a cue of authenticity and community belonging, but it also goes against social and sometimes platform norms.”

He and Niknejad used machine learning to analyze 43,892 videos on a popular platform, shared by its 200 gaming influencers with the most subscribers. The program looked for swear words included in a dictionary developed by three UT scholars, including psychology professor James Pennebaker.

The program measured concentrations of profanity, counting both the number of times words appeared in a single video and the length of the video. It also gauged volume, video quality, and vocal emotion expressed in each video.

“We used machine learning models to extract certain auditory characteristics, such as how loudly they speak,” Niknejad says. “If I used the F-word and you just read the transcript of what I say, you might think I’m angry. But when you hear my actual tone, it’s different. Maybe I’m even laughing.”

The researchers controlled for influencer attributes such as popularity, gender, race, and age. To assess viewer responses, they looked at numbers of likes and user comments.

On average, they found, each additional dirty word decreased engagement from 0.04% to 0.74%. For the average influencer, that meant 230 to 4,030 fewer interactions with users.

“Swearing is becoming more normal,” says Niknejad. “At the same time, when we look at the broader audiences, there are many people who still are going to react negatively to it.”

Context Is Crucial

Because gamers are notorious for crude speech, the team also examined more mainstream influencers: 1,730 how-to and style videos in fashion, hobbies, and home improvement.

In those categories, profanity was even more distasteful for users. It lessened engagement as much as 6.5%.

The lesson, the researchers say, is that context matters. Several contexts make negative responses more likely:

Mixed audiences. Swearing can cue a sense of community when viewers are demographically similar. But when they’re not, it’s more likely to turn off conservative viewers.

Polite discourse. When profanity is inserted into otherwise respectful content, audiences interpret it as a tactic, and they question the speaker’s motives.

Gender. Though expletives from both genders reduce engagement, users dislike them more when the influencer is female. They conflict with lingering gender norms, Niknejad suggests.

Sponsors stir suspicions. Profanity is more harmful when it appears in sponsored videos, perhaps because the existence of financial motives makes viewers less trusting.

In a few contexts, however, swearing doesn’t turn off audiences. When an influencer has a history of off-color language, viewers remain engaged. Used consistently, swearing can even be a reliable part of the influencer’s brand.

The lesson for brand managers is to evaluate whether an influencer’s language feels authentic and engaging to their viewers, the researchers say.

Most influencers, however, may want to use profanity sparingly — or not at all — if they want to expand into a more diverse audience.

 “Profanity use is very nuanced,” Niknejad says. “It’s not all positive, and it’s not all negative. Know your audience and create appropriate content for them.”

“To Swear or Not To Swear: Exploring the Role of Profanity in Influencer Marketing” is published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Story by Sally Parker