A new study links taste preferences with personality traits.
Unlike other animals that consider bitter food as a warning sign to stay away from non-edible food, humans are fascinated with bitter taste. Not all, but some. We like eating dark chocolate and broccoli. And we obviously love drinking beer, which as you know, is quite bitter.
A recent study in a journal called appetite revealed that people with fondness for bitter food might have psychopathic and antisocial tendencies.
To conduct the study, 500 participants were asked about how much they like different kinds of bitter, sweet, sour and salty foods. This was followed by a few personality quizzes. Each quiz evaluated aggression, narcissism, psychopath behaviour and Machiavellianism. Another quiz analysed people on the basis of the big five personality traits that include openness, extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability and conscientiousness.
The research concluded that people who liked bitter food were sadists and relatively more aggressive. It further suggested that preference for bitter food spoke a lot more about personality than any other taste.
Whether or not personality tastes are linked with taste preferences is an unexplored study. But this research surely added to it. Previously researchers found that people who enjoy eating vegetables love to try new things. And people who drink caffeine are the ones looking for sensation-seeking activities.
This study does give us an idea about how our eating habits are related to our character traits. But the biggest question of whether this preference for bitter food or any other food is caused by biology or psychology or both, remains unanswered.
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