Coffee’s dark side

A fondness for bitter-tasting food and drinks may be a sign of dark personality traits

A new research suggest people who are fond bitter foods, including black coffee, are more likely to display sadistic and Machiavellian tendencies. Reem Mohammed / The National

In The Silence of the Lambs, the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter expressed a liking for fava beans – but in real life it may be coffee beans that indicate psychotic tendencies. According to a study by psychology researchers at Innsbruck University in Austria, published in the journal Appetite, people with a penchant for black coffee are more likely to display sadistic and Machiavellian tendencies. The experts noted that people who enjoyed other bitter foods, such as radishes, celery and tonic water, were also more likely to exhibit these dark traits.

This is not the first study to show correlations between taste and personality. Previous research suggests that a preference for salty tastes was a robust indicator of being more adventurous, while a sweet tooth indicates impulsiveness.

So next time you go on an office coffee run, you may end up learning more much more about your colleagues than you ever thought possible. But, we are sure, not to the extreme exhibited by Hannibal Lecter.