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Do you like coffee? People who like bitter food may have a darker personality.

Published: 2026-06-27 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/06/27, Psychologists have found that people who like bitterness are more likely to show signs of Machiavellian manipulationism, sadism and narcissism. Sina Science and Technology News Beijing time on October 13 news, if you particularly like bitter food and drinks, such as coffee, Tongning water, etc., then be careful, because this may mean that you have a higher tendency for mental disorders. Psychologists have found that they like suffering.

Psychologists have found that people who like bitterness are more likely to show signs of Machiavellian manipulationism, sadism and narcissism. Sina Science and Technology News Beijing time on October 13 news, if you particularly like bitter food and drinks, such as coffee, Tongning water, etc., then be careful, because this may mean that you have a higher tendency for mental disorders.

Psychologists have found that people who like bitterness are more likely to show signs of Machiavellian manipulationism, sadism and narcissism. In other words, they are more likely to be cunning, selfish, vain and cold-blooded, lack compassion and prefer to base their happiness on the sufferings of others.

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria studied 1000 participants in two separate experiments. Their findings provide "first-hand evidence of the association between bitterness and malicious personality traits". "the results show that there is a stable link between how much people like bitter foods and drinks and how dark their personalities are," the researchers said. " Bitter foods include unsweetened cocoa powder, black coffee, radishes and toning water containing quinine.

In the first experiment, the researchers showed 500 men and women a long list of foods with the same amount of sweet (such as chocolate cake), salty (such as bacon), sour (such as vinegar) and bitter (such as radish). Participants were asked to rate various foods on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 as "strong disgust" and 6 as "like very much".

The average age of the participants was 35, and they filled out four different personality questionnaires. The first questionnaire was mainly about their aggressiveness, asking them their views on questions such as "if I am provoked enough, I will hit someone."

In addition to showing dark personality characteristics, the penchant for bitterness is negatively correlated with the dimension of agreeable personality. In the second questionnaire, participants were asked to rate statements about personality traits such as Machiavellian manipulators, psychopaths and narcissists, and rated them on a scale from "strong opposition" to "strong approval". Examples of these arguments include "I tend to manipulate others to achieve my goals", "I tend to be ruthless or insensitive" and "I tend to ask others to notice me".

In the third questionnaire, participants answered questions about Big 5 personality traits, including extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability.

Finally, participants completed a comprehensive evaluation questionnaire about sadistic tendencies to assess whether they had a "daily sadistic" personality tendency. The questionnaire deals with the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of arguments, such as "when teasing others, it becomes especially fun if they realize what I have done to them" and "I enjoy torturing others".

Another 450 people participated in another similar experiment, and the results confirmed the conclusions of the first experiment. "in general, a penchant for bitterness is a strong predictor of Machiavellian manipulators, psychopaths, narcissism and daily sadism," the researchers wrote in the journal Appetite.

The researchers added that Agreeableness personality traits-meaning that a person is gentle, compassionate and cooperative-are negatively correlated with a penchant for bitterness. Why do people with such dark personality traits prefer bitter food? The researchers did not analyze this in depth, but they speculated that these people might be able to experience a certain "thrill" in bitter food.

In the wild, bitterness is often a sign that plants warn herbivores that they may be poisonous, which is why many people hate bitterness. However, for people with sadistic tendencies, eating bitter food may be able to "enjoy things that bring fear compared to the feeling of a roller coaster," said study author Christina Sagioglou. "We found a strong link between bitter food and daily sadistic tendencies."

"Daily sadism is a concept related to benign self-abuse (benign Masochism)-- the enjoyment of painful behavior-- originally described and studied by psychologist Paul Rozin," she continued, "quoting Paul Rozin's explanation: 'when eating foods that the human body naturally hates, the fun may come from the fact that the body gives signals of rejection. But people themselves know that there is no real danger. " (Ren Tian)

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