Black Coffee Drinkers 'More Likely To Be Psychopaths' Reveals Study

You may want to start keeping a close eye on those black coffee drinkers in your life as it turns out they may be hiding an alarming side to themselves...

Before we get into this, I should probably come clean and admit to being a black coffee drinker myself.

Personally, I don't really trust this study - it's quite rare that I consider myself to be the smartest person in a roomful of lesser beings, but then it's easy to hide my true feelings by charming and manipulating people to feel how I want them to - and I never really feel any regret or empathy for how my shallow actions affect others - so we should probably take what follows with a pinch of salt.

In a study conducted by a group of researchers at Innsbruck University, Austria, 1,000 adults were questioned about their food preferences, and took personality tests that help detect narcissism, psychopathy, aggression and other traits. As it turned out, the results suggest that individuals who like bitter foods and liquids (black coffee) are more likely to display sadism and psychopathy.

In addition, as part of the study, the participants were asked to rate a series of statements such as, ‘Given enough provocation, I may hit someone’ – to measure each person’s level of aggression, and assess the personality traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism.

The final task involved completing a Comprehensive Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies – used to evaluate tendencies towards everyday sadism.

The study concluded that: “General bitter taste preferences emerged as a robust predictor for Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism.”

The study authors, Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer write: "The present research has demonstrated that bitter taste preferences are associated with more pronounced malevolent personality traits, especially robustly with everyday sadism."

They add: "... In preferring bitter tasting foods more than less sadistic people, everyday sadists may perceive them as positive due to their potential to cause distaste, that is, to cause a negative experience in other people."

This is not the first time research has found a link between taste and personality.

Previous studies have shown sweet taste experiences increase 'agreeableness' and eagerness to help, while bitter tastes increase hostility and elicit harsher moral judgments.

So I guess that means if you like your coffee black, but with three spoonfuls of sugar, you fall somewhere between psychopathy and overly eager to please?

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