Behavior: X-Rated Expletives

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Notorious Machismo. Researchers agree that some social groups make especially heavy usage of obscenities. Truck drivers, factory and construction workers and men in the armed services are notorious cursers, often as a demonstration of their machismo. In a survey of the language patterns of 3,000 midwesterners, Psychologist Paul Cameron found that 24% of the vocabulary of factory and construction workers on the job consists of "dirty" words. It is hard, notes Cameron, to put together sentences with more swear words than that. White-collar professionals, he found, have only a 1% rating in the office and 3% to 4% at parties. This distinction does not apply to the nation's No. 1 white-collar professional. Proper at parties, he lets himself go in the highest office of the land.