This State Swears More Than Any Other

If you're easily offended, you may want to cover your ears during any business call with Ohioans. This is according to a new survey of taped phone calls—the kind with your bank, for instance—in which they warn you that your call may be recorded. During such calls, Ohioans were the most likely to swear, the Atlantic reports. Ohio is also among the top five least courteous states, as measured by use of "please" and "thank you." The data comes from a survey of 600,000 calls collected and scanned by the Marchex Institute.

The study says that Ohioans swear in one out of every 150 conversations; Maryland and New Jersey were the runners up. Residents of Washington, the state least likely to swear, cursed just once out of every 300 conversations. Massachusetts and Arizona came in second and third in the minimal-swearing category. As for general courtesy, the highest-ranked state was South Carolina; the least polite was Wisconsin. The Atlantic also points out that men were responsible for 66% of swearing, and the most profane calls are those lasting more than 10 minutes. Morning calls, meanwhile, contained cursing twice as often as afternoon or evening ones. (More swearing stories.)