More than 40 years ago, comedian George Carlin made waves with a bit in which he read aloud, as he called them, the “seven dirty words” you can’t say on television.

Several of those words are still on the do-not-say list. Yet, the fact that not all of them are is significant, according to Ben Bergen, professor of cognitive science at University of California San Diego.

Bergen has written about how young adults are more offended by slurs than swears.

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