The effect of profanity on Filipinos' perceived genuineness on political speakers

• Main Authors: Cortez, Maikaela, Daytia, Dane Louise P., Gilla, Aubrey Khay A., Quitain, Maria Clarisse L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Political oratory > Philippines; Swearing > Philippines
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/9670
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study intended to find out if a political speaker who uses profane words in his political message will be perceived as genuine by Filipinos. Although profanity has some negative implications, there were empirical studies that revealed an existing positive relationship between profanity and other social variables, such as honesty. Additionally, these studies were also able to discover the positive effects of profanity on interpersonal relationship and comfort. Through a true experimental design, the study was conducted to 99 Filipino community samples and 98 Filipino undergraduate students, distributed manually and via online. Using a sentence to profane word ratio, four levels of profanity were established by the researchers of this study, which served as the independent variable, and perceived genuineness as the dependent variable. The participants answered a survey questionnaire, which comprises of questions that aim to measure the independent and dependent variables, as well as the control variables-- age, gender, religious beliefs, social status, and political stand. Results showed that while the political stand of the participant is being taken into consideration, the different levels of profanity had no effect on the perceived genuineness of political speakers. Therefore, the genuineness of a political speaker, regardless of the presence of profanity, was predicted by the political stand of the audience.