Like black coffee? You could be a sadist.

Like black coffee? Then you could well be a horrible person.

Now before you go off accusing us of slander, we’d like to point that we’re simply reporting on a recent academic study which appears to have unearthed that link. And, well, we’d never cast aspersions on your integrity, dear valued reader*.

The study, which is set to be published in the journal Appetite, is based on two separate pieces of research and indicates that “an increased preference for bitter tastes (such as coffee) should be related to a more hostile personality.”

We’ve even seen words such as ‘narcissistic’, ‘Machiavellian’, ‘psychopathic’ and, worryingly, ‘sadist’ thrown around in the discourse on this issue too.

The researchers, led by Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer, conducted a survey which asked 1,000 people about their culinary likes and dislikes, which a specific focus on sweet, sour, salty and bitter food groups.

At the same time, they were also given a fairly standard personality questionnaire to fill out which contained a bunch of introspective questions.

Once everybody had answered, the results were analysed and correlations were drawn. And it was determined that if you liked bitter food products, your coffee black and your gin with a tonic, they you’ve got some rather negative traits.

Conversely, if you like you coffee dosed up to the eyeballs with sugar and cream then there’s a chance that you’re a super dooper person!

It’s unclear as to why this correlation is apparently in existence, though Sagioglou put forward the theory that those who enjoy bitterly tasting foods could also like roller coasters and other activities that induce fear.

This isn’t the first study to make links between food and beverage preferences and personality traits. Back in 2009 one paper found that people who opted for sweeter white wines were more likely to be neurotic whilst one in 2012 uncovered that those with sweet teeth tended to be helpful.
 

*However this does explain a few things about Clive… (Ed: Cheeky!)