People Who Prefer Black Coffee Are More Likely To Have Psychopathic Or Sadistic Traits, Study Finds (rd.com)

A new study conducted at the University of Innsbruck in Austria finds that people who drink their coffee black often has psychopathic or sadistic traits. The study surveyed more than 1,000 adults about their taste preferences with foods and drinks that are bitter. They also took four different personality tests that assessed traits like narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, and aggression. From a report: Researchers found a trend that suggested a correlation between preferences for black coffee, and other bitter tastes, and sadistic or psychopathic personality traits. They also found that people who enjoyed milky or sugary coffee, and other sweet flavors, generally tended to have more "agreeable" personality traits like sympathy, cooperation, and kindness. The closest correlation found in the study was between bitter foods, like radishes and tonic water, and "everyday sadism," or the enjoyment of inflicting moderate levels of pain on others. The researchers went further, suggesting that this association between bitter foods and psychopathic tendencies could "become chronic" and get worse with time.

Comments

This is stupid junk science.

[Hey_Jude_Jesus]

This kind of BS discredits the entire scientific community.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[JaredOfEuropa]

Translation: we found a tenuous statistical correlation that will make for an awesome headline.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing less "hard" about correlating data in civics as physics, in fact the same rules apply. The only question is how much more complex the data is involving human behavior as opposed to particle/wave behavior.

If you discount any information out of hand because you think the result is "bad science" but you don't actually have a method of critique, you are not a scientist or operating in that field at all, just a tourist.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[ceoyoyo]

Hey, come on, an R^2 of 0.02 is really strong correlation!

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[alvinrod]

I take like 80% milk.

No, you take your milk with 20% coffee.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[arth1]

I take like 80% milk.

No, you take your milk with 20% coffee.

Maths isn't your strongest skill, I hope?
If 80% of the drink is milk and 20% is coffee, then you need to take your milk with 25% coffee, not 20%.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[ceoyoyo]

They mention previous studies where bitter taste preference was associated with more openness. So exhibitionism. Check.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[hey!]

Well, once you filter it through a typical reporter's capacity for understanding, Relativity is BS.

What the studies in question actually do is correlate a generalized preference for bitter tastes to antisocial personality traits. This would have almost no correlation to liking specific bitter foods, particularly black coffee, which is also a cocktail of pharmacologically acrtive compounds -- including of course caffeine, which is a potent stimulator of the brain's dopamine-mediated reward mechanisms. Beer, likewise, is usually bitter, but alcohol is also a powerful dopamine stimulatior.

But even repeated exposures to non-psychoactive bitter foods can habituate people, and eventually make those foods desirable. We crave what we are accustomed to eating, even if it is radicchio. Many vegetables have bitter components, which is why you have to learn to like them.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[hcs_$reboot]

Maths isn't your strongest skill, I hope?

Text editing isn't your strongest skill, I hope? If 20% of your comment is the parent quote, then you need to make your own comment outside the <quote> tags.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[Kjella]

Maths isn't your strongest skill, I hope? If 80% of the drink is milk and 20% is coffee, then you need to take your milk with 25% coffee, not 20%.

English is not yours? Coffee + milk = coffee. Ice cream + toppings = ice cream. Additives don't count. If I say I take my coffee with 20% milk I think all native speakers would take that to mean 20% of the entire cup of coffee, not that I've added 20% to black coffee. Of course the pun here is that there's so much milk it's milk with coffee instead of coffee with milk. But it's still just 20%.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[quantaman]

This kind of BS discredits the entire scientific community.

I think the causal implication is a bit junky but a correlation isn't implausible.

Black coffee and bitter foods are both things that create a bit of culinary conflict, one of the reasons to consume them is to create a strong sensation even if it's a bit unpleasant.

Psychopaths and sadists are also people who tend to seek out stronger sensations, psychopaths because they have muted emotions and sadists because they enjoy the discomfort.

If this correlation is legit I'd expect sociopaths and sadists to enjoy spicy food as well.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[rtb61]

Seems logical. Coffee is not just coffee, it is caffeine and also bitter as well altering digestive chemistry. So the nature of the individual and their preference for that drink, drunk in that matter and the amount they choose to drink. Psychopaths are not psychopaths because they choose to be that way, they are born that way and likely are unable to properly produce the brain chemical state of 'happiness', which has a profound affect on their psychology. This will reflect in their food choices, their tastes and those taste are not just tastes, those tastes are often molecular precursors for all sorts of brain chemicals, you will teach yourself to choose the ones that feed the nature of your brain, of your personality.

I switch from coffee to alkalised cocoa (that wash the chocolate powered with and alkalised solution which reacts with the bitter acidic elements obviating the need for sugar). Over time it all alter health and recovery state and produced a more at peace digestive tract and altered behaviour as a result, drinking a bean broth, with a little raw sugar and milk, versus drinking chemicals extracts of a burnt bean. Yeah, fuckers, you are what you eat, suck it up or should I say imbibe, so as not to exclude, drunk or smoked or swallowed or snorted or injected and how ever you choose your poisons.

I would expect psychos also prefer cocaine (excitement) and opioids (the missing happy) over a combination of THC and CBD. I would also expect psychos would be very displeased to be exposed by their behavioural patterns preferring to stab everyone else in the back. I can understand exactly why they would prefer black coffee a stimulant, it is their nature.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[TechyImmigrant]

This kind of BS discredits the entire scientific community.

Go read the paper http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp...

It makes no stupid claims. The report only weak association (e.g. r = 0.15 for one of them).

Meanwhile the journalist Shannon Donohue wrote "Do you prefer your morning joe sans cream and sugar? A new study says you're probably a psychopath with sadistic tendencies.". Shannon Donohue is another bad journalist who's first impulse on reading a paper is to lie about it in an article.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[q_e_t]

Back in 'the day', by which I mean the days of my parents and grandparents, coffee with water and a little milk was called coffee, coffee with just milk was called 'church coffee'. Now, I suppose, it would be a latte, but without the steam and froth, as that would probably be sinful.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[Highdude702]

I would expect psychos also prefer cocaine (excitement) and opioids (the missing happy) over a combination of THC and CBD.

Now riddle me this. I have been called a psycho a time or two in my 32 years on this earth. I like all of the above mentioned(CBD gives you no feeling) and have battled and won addiction with the first two. How would liking the euphoric feeling of the drug make me a psychopath? I consider myself a rather happy person until somebody does something stupid. I cant help the fact that stupidity pisses me off.

Re:This is stupid junk science.

[Oligonicella]

This will reflect in their food choices, their tastes and those taste are not just tastes, those tastes are often molecular precursors for all sorts of brain chemicals, you will teach yourself to choose the ones that feed the nature of your brain, of your personality.

Well there's a butt-load of supposition on your part. Kinda like soc-sci in general.

As a black coffee drinker

[denisbergeron]

I develop psychopathic and Sadistic Traits when I'm in line to order a coffee and the person(s) before me, ask for a double cream, piñata, spicey, cassonade, maple, cappuccino, with a gest of cittrus some cannelle and stuff like that

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[TeknoHog]

Those who can't drink their coffee neat shouldn't be counted as coffee drinkers. If you like milky drinks with a splash of coffee, fine, but please don't call the whole thing coffee. It's like saying "I'm a C programmer, but I don't really know much C, I only use it via the Python interpreter".

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[gweihir]

Well, I write Python modules in C. No Idea what that signifies...

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[Dutch Gun]

For many years, I didn't enjoy black coffee. But I was honest enough to call what I drank "liquid coffee candy". As I got older, I found that I enjoyed black coffee more. It allows you to enjoy more subtle flavors which cream, sugar, and flavorings cover up.

Re: As a black coffee drinker

[Cmdln Daco]

It means you're an enabler.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[The Grim Reefer]

So if someone like's black coffee, that tells you nothing.

But if they try to gouge your eyes out with a spoon while enjoying their black coffee, they just might be a psychopath.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[arth1]

Adulterating it with sugar and fats turns a zero calorie drink into something you should avoid.

Coffee isn't zero calorie. Unsweetened coffee without milk or other additives have from 1-12 calories per cup, depending on the coffee and size of the cup. That's if it's room temperature. If it's hot, add the heat calories it will give off cooling to your body temperature after drinking.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[alvinrod]

Also, most people's experience with black coffee is Folgers or similar low quality grounds that are much closer to loose dirt or discarded pencil shavings than it is to coffee. Get some good beans that you grind yourself and prepare appropriately and black coffee can have a wonderful flavor profile that needs no additives to enjoy.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[Trogre]

Wait, you water down your coffee? Fine, but don't call it coffee.

Chew the beans like a man.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[ceoyoyo]

I prefer to grind them up and snort them. Hits harder.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[blindseer]

If it were almost any other drug you'd be in jail, but if it's caffeine, you can brag about your addiction and no one will bat an eye.

I heard someone point out that if we had discovered alcohol today then it would be classified as a schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act. This would be fairly accurate as it is a highly addictive intoxicating substance, with no accepted medicinal value, and having high probability of mental or physical harm. Caffeine in high doses likely meets this standard as well. As would tobacco.

One problem with this is the standard for addiction seems rather subjective. Addiction is just a mental or physical craving for a substance. Are people "addicted" to air? Or food? Well, there are some cases of a food addiction but this is often a sign of an underlying mental or physical condition. I recall a cabbage craving was considered a sign of some physical problem, and people self medicating by eating foam from couch cushions. Of course there are better treatments for diseases than eating gobs of cabbage, and certainly eating foam padding is not all that healthy.

As someone that deals with chronic pain I hear the word "addiction" far too often. There's even a term for seeking medication outside of merely abusing the substance, "pseudo-addiction". Addiction is, again, so subjective that it's lost all meaning to me. There's claims of people being addicted to video games, watching porn, washing their hands, and so many other behaviors. What makes taking a drug, drinking coffee, or smoking a cigarette an addiction over merely a bad habit? I've heard it somewhere that tobacco use is not an addiction if it's not used more than once per month. So, a person is "addicted" if they like to have a cigarette with his smoking friends when they meet on the weekend for poker and pizza? Are they also addicted to poker and pizza then?

I'm thinking we need a better word than addiction for such cravings, or we need to need to better define addiction to something other than merely something that can be mistaken for routine, medical needs, or bad habits. I don't want to be accused of being an addict just because I have not had my pain properly managed by physicians. It seems we've created a health care system so handcuffed by the government's fear of addiction that they can't do their job.

I remember hearing on how there's an "epidemic" among veterans for their opiate use, being prescribed opiates far above the general population. Well, no shit Sherlock! The average population isn't shot at, blown up, dropped from helicopters, marched for miles with 100 pounds on their backs, or put in considerable peril by an LT with a map. I won't doubt that there is an opiate abuse problem, but people need to be treated as individuals and not as some average member of the general population. The average member of the population has one testicle, one ovary, and 1.99 legs, which has little to do with how an individual is treated.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[thegarbz]

So, a person is "addicted" if they like to have a cigarette with his smoking friends when they meet on the weekend for poker and pizza?

You're confusing yourself with definitions. Addiction doesn't have anything to do with "like". Quite the opposite. It has to do with "need" even if you don't "like". If you have a cigarette once a month then you're not addicted to them. In general withdrawal symptoms to addictive substances don't take more than a couple of days to screw you up.

What addiction looks like:
You want to give up smoking, but you can't.
You give up coffee and start chewing paracetamol tablets to get the headaches under control for the next week (my own experience).
You give up sugar and bite the head off everyone who talks to you for a week in ways that not even a hormonally raged psycho on her period could possibly do (my own experience with someone else).
You say "I can stop ${thing} anytime I want!" And yet when you actually need to stop you continue doing ${thing} because the very brain that wants to stop is also dependent on the status quo.

I think you're self justifying the need to define addiction differently. The reality is that most people can understand the difference between an occasional craving and an addiction quite well.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[Tom]

Addiction is just a mental or physical craving for a substance.

No, it is not.

Are people "addicted" to air? Or food?

You are committing a catagory mistake there.

Air and food are necessary for survival. Coffee is not, alcohol is not, heroin is not, tobacco is not, etc. etc.

An addiction is exactly the condition that tricks your brain into believing that OMG I WILL DIE IF I DON'T GET MY CIGARETTE RIGHT NOW.

Addiction is turning a craving into a behaviour-changing existential need.

Re:As a black coffee drinker

[TeknoHog]

First time I've heard "neat" applied to coffee. Pouring it at room temperature seems pretty strange to me, but who am I to play gatekeeper?

I couldn't find a better word (not a native English speaker) to describe coffee without any mixers. "Black coffee" is a tautology because coffee is black by itself, like "black coal" or "black African-American". If you make coffee not black, then it's no longer coffee, hence it shouldn't be counted as drinking coffee.

Good to know for job interviews.

[BitterOak]

If you're interviewing for a job and the interviewer offers you coffee, be sure to take cream and sugar even if you normally don't. Otherwise you might be signalling you're a psychopath or sadist. Of course, the reverse advice applies if you are applying for a police or correctional officer position.

Re:Good to know for job interviews.

[93 Escort Wagon]

When coffee is bad, I do take both cream and sugar. In a job interview I’m likely going to assume any proferred coffee is going to be bad, so...

Re:Good to know for job interviews.

[Black LED]

Also wear glasses and a wedding band. People associate glasses with knowledge ("his eyes went bad because he read a lot") and the wedding band may help you to negotiate a higher salary (don't point it out, just use hand gestures while speaking so that they will see it).

Again, reverse that if you are applying for law enforcement.

"people has"

[PopeRatzo]

A new study conducted at the University of Innsbruck in Austria finds that people who drink their coffee black often has psychopathic or sadistic traits.

I like my coffee like I like my opium: strong and black. My sadistic trait is ridiculing people who can't use basic grammar.

Not this shit again

[ArchieBunker]

This piece of shit study is making the rounds again. So I guess all the douche bros who like IPA beer are psychos? Makes sense.

Re:Not this shit again

[The Evil Atheist]

You mean the paragraph that also says this?

Despite the improvements to overall objectivity by establishing non - naturalistic means of comparing tastes, our sample population (n=40) was unlikely to yield results with high internal validity given the size of the original study (n=953). In addition to the disadvantage faced with a much smaller participant population, the laboratory portion of the experiment itself also left great room for improvement.

One question

[fahrbot-bot]

Does the study say anything about people that have their own brand of coffee?

[ Asking for a friend. ]

health reasons

[schematix]

Of course coffee tastes better when you add sugar and cream to it. Just about everything tastes better when you add sugar and fat. I choose to drink my coffee black for health reasons, not because i prefer it that way. I don't want to prematurely rot my teeth or add what would amount to a candy bar worth of sugar to my diet every day just to consume caffeine. I drink tea without sugar for the same reason. I challenge the readers of this post to observe their coworkers. Is their a correlation because being overweight and how you drink your coffee? The results will not be shocking. Even more so when you look at the people who consume the Starbucks coffee milkshakes regularly.

Re:health reasons

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Just about everything tastes better when you add sugar and fat.

Just about everything tastes better when you add ketchup and bacon.

I haven't seen it anywhere with coffee, though.

I'll leave it as an exercise for the readers to try it with their coffee.

Re:health reasons

[thegarbz]

Just about everything tastes better when you add sugar and fat.

It sounds like your tastebuds have been ruined by overexposure to sugary substances. Quit sugar for a month and you will in fact find that most things taste like shit when sugar is added just to sweeten.

Re:I dom't drink coffee

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I drink Mt Dew

. . . you don't drink coffee . . . yet . . . :

Mountain Dew Users May Go On To Use Harder Beverages:

https://www.theonion.com/mount...

Re:Not remotely causal

[roc97007]

Shit like this does not deserve attention. Correlation is not causation. Looking for correlations and suggesting causation is tantamount to scientific perjury. I have never been more ashamed to be human than I am right now, but I can say that every day: the world gives an unending stream of reasons to be ashamed of it.

Enh, don't feel ashamed to be a human. If you're a researcher at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, feel free to feel ashamed, otherwise no. With several billion people on the planet, researchers trying for fame or money instead of science, and a news system that gravitates to crap sensationalist news to sell ad space, you're going to get stuff like this.

Now that I write all that, I'm starting to feel ashamed to be a human also.

JANEWAY!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

This one fact completely explains pretty much the entire series of Star Trek Voyager.

2915 is not "new"

[thomasoa]

The PDF says it is from 2015.

Re:psudoscience masquerading as real science

[youngone]

Economists are more like priests than scientists. Economics is just another stupid religion.

Who paid for that study?

[lnxguy]

I didn't know Frappuccino lobbyists had enough pocket change to pay for such unbiased research... I guess I'm just psychopathic because I don't like foo foo in my coffee...

What they forgot to mention

[ceoyoyo]

Is that their whole models have R^2 somewhere between 0.01 and 0.06. That's for all the tastes and the higher end of those correlations is for all the dark personality traits too.

Oh, and liking salty things was a stronger predictor of sadism than bitter was.

I beg to differ

[Plortzod]

I used to put cream and sugar in my coffee, eat processed foods, and drink cheap beer. I was a very nice caring person before this diet rewired my brain. Now that I'm psychotic and sadistic, I'm starting to feel a preference for black coffee. Oh, and IPA beer and extra sharp cheddar cheese too.

Nonsense

[glenebob]

I love black coffee, radishes, bitter-sweet chocolate, and gin and tonic. And I hope everyone involved in this study dies in a fire.

Coffee freaks know the truth

[TigerPlish]

The better the coffee, the less sugar (or other additives) it needs.

That explains a lot...

[Grog6]

I just thought it was all those years of crappy university coffee made me like assembler.

I started with M68k assembler; it was beautiful. Even with only 16MB.

Then x86 Assembler, it's like "WTF are these 4k pages!??"
X86-64 is nice.

I've been doing PIC assembler for the last few years; I miss having memory, lol. :)

I guess I need to know if it still black coffee

[bobstreo]

if you drink it mixed with the blood of your enemies?

I take my coffee black.

[plopez]

It doesn't affect me. I'm going to find the POS authors of the study and kick the shit out of them.

Silence of the Beans

[seoras]

"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Starbucks Americano."

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Re: Depends on the coffee

[avandesande]

They've done legit double blind studies and drip coffee is considered best.

Commissary

[BankRobberMBA]

In the Feds they sell instant coffee, nondairy creamer, and artificial sweetener on the Commissary.

Re:Commissary

[Anonymous Coward]

How did you come by that information Mr BankRobberMBA?

Re:Commissary

[Highdude702]

A lot more people than you think have been to prison. Even more have known somebody close to them that was in prison. This is just common knowledge. Do you think you really get bread and water?(thats county time)

Re:Commissary

[BankRobberMBA]

Um, full disclosure, FWIW. I am a convicted felon.

2x Bank robbery - guilty
1x Armed bank robbery - guilty
1x "924C" Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence (Armed bank robbery) - guilty
1x Carjacking - maybe
1x "924C" Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence (Carjacking) - charge dropped in exchange for a plea of guilty on the other four charges**.

*: I'm still not convinced I met the elements of the crime for carjacking. I ordered the bank employee to surrender their keys so I could escape in their car. Same thing in the previous two robberies, cars recovered in less than an hour each time. The carjacking statute requires use of violence with intent to cause injury, which didn't happen. However, charging a second violent crime (carjacking) allowed them to also charge a second 924C.

**: The first 924C conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. A second conviction requires a mandatory minimum of 25 years. I had 30 years on the table before we even started talking about the robberies and the carjacking. They said they'd drop the second 924C in exchange for an immediate guilty plea on the remaining four charges and I almost broke my fingers reaching for the pen to sign it. I got a little over 10 years and served about 8.5 after good time and halfway house placement.

Welp.

[Cinnamon Beige]

Hey, come on, an R^2 of 0.02 is really strong correlation!

Is that what they found? Then the tl;dr of the study is "We gotta publish something and this is something." I kind of think that, until we can fix publish-or-perish so you can afford to take the time to do quality research and probably even afterwards, we need a journal or two with titles like Unusual Results in Science--for when your research pretty much returned inconclusive or surreal results of the "Somehow the math returned a result of apple" sort. It'd probably do a decent bit towards the possible problems caused by having the actually normal results possibly not being the ones published--and, well, just because your experiment returned surreal results doesn't mean it might not be scientifically useful. (Even if it may raise new and disturbing questions like "Why are the laws of physics apparently different within a meter of J. Random, the theoretical physicist???")

Re:Welp.

[Cinnamon Beige]

Well... real correlations with crappy R2 do mean that there's some connection between the two things.

First off, there's spurious correlations--where the most reasonable explanation for a statistically significant correlation (where the R2 is actually a very high value) is that it's just a really, really, really weird coincidence. This site lets you explore examples, and some have a very strong R^2 while also being quite unlikely to actually have a correlation--for example, the divorce rate in Maine correlates to the per capita consumption of margarine with an R^2 of 0.99...but there is no reasonable mechanism by which one could influence the other. That's actually part of why you're generally supposed to include some sort of theory when you're trying to show correlations, unless your goal is to create demonstrations of why it's wrong to assume that correlation even implies connection, no less causation.

Next, a R^2 of 0.02 is...fantastically low. The range is from 0 to 1, because it's basically a ratio. You can think of it very accurately as a measure of how well the line you just drew on the graph paper correlates to the data points--with 1 being the point at which it's perfect and 0 being where it has no relationship whatsoever.

Last? The usual cutoff for statistical significance in psych research is 0.05. Statistical significance is the point where you feel the correlation is strong enough that it isn't just cause by error--and one major cause of error is choosing a too-low threshold. And, well, 0.02 is less than half the normal threshold...

Re:Welp.

[TechyImmigrant]

R^2 is not the same thing as statistical significance. SS is the probability you would get that level of result with the null hypothesis being true. R^2 is the measure of the relationship.

Re:Welp.

[TechyImmigrant]

I was referring to this sequence...

> Next, a R^2 of 0.02 is...fantastically low.
then
> The usual cutoff for statistical significance in psych research is 0.05.
then
> And, well, 0.02 is less than half the normal threshold...

Comparing the p value to R^2. Not the same thing.

Re:psudoscience masquerading as real science

[mschuyler]

Agreed. Ted Bundy* was a psychology major (UW, 1972)

* I went to high school with Ted Bundy.

Re: Uh oh

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't they just give you a job? Surely a sadist is still suited to that line of work.