A recent study has revealed some interesting findings about people and the way they prefer their coffee or beer. Your food choices can reveal a lot more about your personality than you might think.
The findings, published in a journal called Appetite , showed that people who prefer bitter/sour foods and drinks are more likely to exhibit psychopathic tendencies.
There have been a number of studies done to show the association between types of foods that can be linked to common personality traits, and the results are interesting to say the least.
These studies have found that people who prefer sweeter things, like cream and sugar in their coffee, tend to be (on a broader scale) kinder, more considerate, and more agreeable in most aspects of life.
So if you’re looking for new friends, your best bet is to be friends with the person who fills up on sweets, cream, and sugar at Starbucks.
However, the study found that those who prefer bitter and sour flavors, like black coffee, gin, horseradish, and beer, are more likely to exhibit traits of a more psychopathic nature (so all lawyers and the entire Internal Revenue Service, right?). Sadistic traits were first determined by a comprehensive assessment of sadistic tendencies to determine the level at which things were measured.
The study subjects were then given four questionnaires to allow them to self-report their levels of aggression, asking questions about hitting others and what their “breaking point” was.
These questionnaires measured traits generally considered sadistic, psychopathic tendencies, narcissistic traits, and Machiavellianism (cunning and deceit used in various aspects of life).
So, each applicant answered these questions based on their own thoughts about themselves, and the researchers analyzed the results.
What they found in the results
More people who showed aggressive, narcissistic, sadistic, and Machiavellian traits preferred, by choice, foods that were rated as bitter and sour.
Using the law of large numbers, we assumed that the majority of people who showed psychopathic tendencies preferred foods that would make the average person’s toes flex when thinking about them. And people who showed more gentle traits like kindness were more likely to prefer sweet foods.
The only problem is that since the applicants rated themselves, there’s no guarantee that the statements were true—it’s just safe to assume that the majority of the answers each person gave were enough to determine what traits each individual possessed.
It’s not about “content,” it’s about “more answers on this questionnaire indicate sadism, so it’s safe to assume that this person has sadistic traits.” That’s really the essence of science, honestly.
The funny part about black coffee is that black coffee is the healthiest way to drink coffee. So before you start shunning coffee drinkers who prefer black coffee, keep in mind that this is just a study and they may just be concerned about their health. They may not be psychopaths!
