Like Your Coffee Black? You Might be a Psychopath

If your co-worker likes to take their coffee black, you may want to keep a close eye on them. 

According to a new study from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, people who dig drinking their cup of joe without anything added to it often display psychopathic or sadistic traits. 

The authors of the study said they surveyed more than 1,000 adults, asking them about their taste preferences when it comes to their morning brew. The study also had the adults in the study take four different personality tests that examined personality traits like narcissism, aggression, sadism and psychopathy. 

"The results of both studies confirmed the hypothesis that bitter taste preferences are 39 positively associated with malevolent personality traits, with the most robust relation to everyday 40 sadism and psychopathy," the study says.  

The study reaffirms previous research that's found a close link between an individual's taste sensitivity and personality traits. For example, people who have a high sensitivity to bitter compounds (or Supertasters) are consistently linked to higher emotionality in humans and rats. "Nontasters" on the other hand, report being more relaxed than their supertaster brethren. 

That's not all the study discovered, wine drinkers who prefer sweet white wines were found to have higher neuroticism and lower levels of openess. 

Fear not, while the study says people who like their mud with no sugar or cream, that doesn't necessarily mean they're a raging psychopath, the study author's caution that while some connections between taste preferences and personality have been established, the evidence is still scarce.