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    [OC] How often callers use profanity, by state. Based on 209,937 transcribed phone calls to small businesses.
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    [OC] How often callers use profanity, by state. Based on 209,937 transcribed phone calls to small businesses.


    Source: I run an AI receptionist company. I originally started analyzing our data to see if there are any trends in between the voice that our customers pick and the sentiment of the calls. This led me to look at how often profanity is used on calls and I started to get curious about which states and industries had the "rudest" callers. Used Python (pandas) for the analysis.

    Here is the link to the full analysis. This is just for fun, to be clear. I don't actually think that this indicates which states are ruder. I would have guessed very different results actually…

    The national average is 1.23%, meaning about 1 in 80 callers use any profanity at all. Alaska had the highest rate (6.33%) but from only 79 calls. Oklahoma is the highest with a solid sample size. 4.35% from nearly 3,000 calls. North Dakota and Montana had zero profanity, though both had small samples.

    Some caveats:

    • I used area code as a proxy for location but it's not perfect because people move and take their numbers with them
    • Some states had very small sample sizes. For states with fewer than 200 calls, I marked them with an asterisk 

    edit: some people pointed out a few typos so added a new version here: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/675adfb744c5476c718cc9b3/69de443bff0fe645bee30573_Heat%20Map.png (OR is 1.12%, not 1.27%. Long Island should be roughly the same color as the rest of NY. KY is 1.31%, not 1%. VA is 1.28%)

    Posted by ucfknight95

    View 50 Comments

    50 Comments

    1. PacquiaoFreeHousing on

      Start soliciting money for donations, and you’ll add another digit across the board

    4. Peregrine79 on

      Long Island is colored differently than the rest of NY. And a Bot receptionist, of any kind, likely gets more profanity than a human.

    8. Groentekroket on

      AI callcenter does a lot of heavy lifting over here. I am making it a point to always be nice and polite to employees, the people you talk are not the one making decisions and just try to get some (way to low) money. I worked service jobs myself so I know how tough it can be. 

      But fuck AI. Just give me an employee who actually understands my question. 

    14. Maxasaurus on

      I don’t like that level of profanity use is directly related with rudeness.

      Also, these callers are speaking to an AI it sounds like? Most people know that using profanity to a computer can trigger a rerouting to a human. Also using profanity is something adults do to articulate a message, not necessarily rudeness

    15. lyndseymariee on

      I’d be using profanity too if I had a stupid AI bot calling me but cool infographic I guess. 

    16. the_mellojoe on

      I’ll add another data point for you.

      Fuck AI call centers. Fuck them all the way off.

      Either let me speak to a human, or just put me on hold until I cab speak to a human. If i wanted an automated menu, I’d go online to your website. The reason I dialed the fucking phone was to talk to a human. That’s literally the entire point. Otherwise, I’d just search for the solution on my own. But to get to the point where I’m dialing the phone means I’ve exhausted all other options and I need a human.

    17. gruntbuggly on

      Profanity is not always the same as rude. Some people in some places use “fuckin’” the way people in other places use “uh”. Do you have any sentiment analysis that shows whether the profanity is just regular speech patterns, or if it is rooted in anger/frustration?

    20. rolyat_13 on

      I’m calling BULLSHIT on NJ. I mean growing up my mom’s favorite curse word for others was mother f*cker c*cks*cker. And as wild as she was she wasn’t calling me that lol

    22. mltam on

      An important point is that using profanity when talking to an AI call center is a good way to reach a human.

    24. gtjacket09 on

      If I call for customer support and have to deal with an AI agent, you can bet your ass I’m cursing at it until I get to a real person. I’m surprised the numbers aren’t a lot higher.

    26. ArgyllAtheist on

      What an absolute shower of pussies, twats and arseholes. 😀

      Those are rookie numbers.

      Scottish primary schools have more profanity than that… And are better for it.

    27. SuspiciousBear3069 on

      When AI first started being using phone calls, I found that using profanity increased the speed in which I got to a functional part of the phone call.
      Sometimes I use profanities specifically because of that.

      I wonder how many people have come to that same conclusion.

    29. Annaura on

      Data flawed. It is impossible to be rude or polite to an ai as it is not a real living being and has no feelings.

    35. ghost9680 on

      Moved from fuckin’ Connecticut to fuckin’ Ohio 20 years ago. I noticed that midwesterners frowned on me speaking in a stream of profanity all fuckin’ day and modulated my vocabulary. Now when I go back to CT it’s jarring.

      I met some old retired Italian lawyer in Cincinnati who had a thick NJ accent. I had no idea what he was doing here, so my mind automatically went to “witness protection”. He says “ you know what I miss most from back east?” We both said “nobody uses fuckin’ profanity” in unison.

      Plus the pizza sucks west of the Appalachians.

    37. BiggBambineaux on

      The AZ, NM, OK, AR stretch is odd to me. The highest sandwiched between some of the lowest.

    38. Alaskan_Narwhal on

      This tracks, I curse out a clanker when they answer my call.

      I’m not polite to robots, give me a fucking human

    40. ChapterTraditional60 on

      As a CT native…can confirm. I remember a friend coming over for Thanksgiving and he was asked to give the blessing. He started with, “Fucking, uhhh, let us pray.”

    41. calvinwho on

      I just swear. Like all the time. It doesn’t mean I’m mad or anything, it’s literally just how I talk, and I can’t seem to get any better than this level of profanity. I’m lucky my kids understand when not to.

    42. t92k on

      It’s interesting but it demonstrates one of my pet peeves — if you plotted these against a 0 to 100 scale instead of a 0 to maximum value scale, every state would be green. People aren’t swearing at your AI that much.

    43. Chubs1224 on

      Idaho is an outlier. Their population is so small they just have Dave. He is an absolute potty mouth

    45. berimtrollo on

      This probably says more about the businesses in each state using your AI service then the general behavior of the people of each state.

      Unless all your clients are nationwide.

    47. Paratwa on

      Eh NM and Oklahoma…

      Aight look as a native when we say shitass it isn’t always vulgar it’s a term of endearment at times. It’s like Australian with the C word.

    49. meaty_t on

      Worth noting that these are people rude to AI, it is not conclusive that they are also rude to people.

    50. MichaelMyersEatsDogs on

      You run a garbage company that makes user experience exponentially worse