A new study suggests that people who prefer to have black coffee are likely to exhibit symptoms that are suggestive of psychopathy, wpxi reports.
The study was published in the journal 'Appetite'.
For the study, the researchers from the University of Innsbruck in Austria studied the food habits of 953 American adults.
The study found that the participants who preferred more bitter tastes in foods like black coffee scored higher on a series of personality questionnaires that measured qualities like narcissism, aggression and sadism.
The study reported that participants who liked bitter foods like radishes, celery, beer and tonic water were also more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits.
"The present research has demonstrated that bitter taste preferences are associated with more pronounced malevolent personality traits, especially robustly with everyday sadism," the study says.
On the other hand, the participants who liked sweet foods like candies and cake scored high on the personality characteristic of "agreeableness."
However, coffee provides proven health such as feelings of elatedness, decreased risk for some cancers, and improved brain function. Straight black coffee-drinkers are enjoy the health benefits without consuming added calories and fat, Huffington Post reports.
Also, the study size was small and the data was self-reported, which makes the results of the study open to skepticism. Also, food preferences are likely to change over time.
However, the study does provide a novel look at the connection between personalities and eating behavior and will lead to further study.
