A six-month-old study of consumer phone calls has gone viral, and it reveals some fascinating things about which states’ residents use the most profanity and which are the most courteous.
Ohio ranked first among states where people were most likely to curse, swearing in one out of about every 150 phone conversations. Maryland came in second, followed by New Jersey, Louisiana and Illinois.
The state less likely to drop the f-bomb or some other curse word? Washington. People there cursed once in about every 300 conversations — or half as much as Ohioans. Massachusetts, Arizona, Texas and Virginia rounded out the top five of what Marchex dubbed the “goody two-shoes” category.
The company also aggregated data on the states most likely to say “please” and “thank you.” South Carolina came in first, followed by North Carolina, Maryland, Louisiana and Georgia. The least courteous states were Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio.
Mobile and technology company Marchex examined 600,000 consumer phone calls over a year, and their findings revealed even more specifics about profanity in phone conversations:
The data also found that:
-
66% of curses come from men
-
The calls that contain the most cursing are more than 10 minutes long. So the longer someone is on the phone, the more likely that call is to devolve.
-
Calls in the morning are twice as likely to produce cursing as calls in the afternoon or evening.
So, I guess the lesson here is, if you see a number with an Ohio area code on your caller ID in the morning, brace yourself…
Join the conversation as a VIP Member