You always knew that friends and family who drank their coffee black were a little unusual.
Now you have the science to back it up.
Looking at the taste preferences of 500 people, researchers found that those who enjoyed bitter flavors over sweet flavors were more likely to exhibit signs of “Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and everyday sadism.” The study, which was published in the journal Appetite, was conducted at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, by psychologists Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer.
For the study, participants rated how much they enjoy foods and drinks that are either sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. These results were then compared to four different types of personality tests that looked at specific traits. One of the personality tests looked at the propensity for aggression. Another looked at how manipulative they are. And a third looked at the ‘Big Five’ personality traits, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.
Finally, they looked at how much enjoyment the participants receive out of other people’s pain by asking them to rate statements such as “I enjoy tormenting people” and “I sometimes replay my favorite scenes from gory slasher films.”
The study found a significant correlation between those displaying more antisocial personality traits and those that liked bitter tastes, particularly flavors like coffee, beer, tonic water and radishes.
So maybe how you have your coffee is a fairly accurate reflection of how much you enjoy bitter flavors.
Sweet You
If you enjoy milky and sugary coffee, you aren’t really a fan of bitterness and you are more likely to show ‘agreeable; tendencies such as kindness, sympathy and cooperativeness.