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Bitter Foods Linked To Psychopathic Tendencies

You are what you eat!

They say you are what you eat, so if you like bitter foods you might just be a bitter person, too.

Researchers from Innsbruck University in Austria discovered a link between the preference for bitter-tasting foods and drinks and psychopathic traits, such as: everyday sadism, Dark Triad, aggression and Machiavellianism.

The 2015 study, which is making the rounds again, surveyed 953 people on their food preferences.

Food and drinks like beer, black coffee, gin, radishes and celery are considered some of the most bitter tasting.

The participants were tested for aggression and asked questions regarding personality traits in search of characteristics such as extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability.

The results showed that agreeable, kind, sympathetic and cooperative people tended not to like bitter foods.

While the study showed a link between the foods and traits, researchers struggled to understand why. One theory, published by Munchies, noted that in the wild, poisonous plants tend to be bitter. So it is possible that psychopaths enjoy the risk of consuming potentially dangerous substances while us non-psychopaths find bitter food to be unappetizing.

Prefer spicy foods to things that have a bitter twang? A similar study from 2013 found cravings for hot and spicy meals are most commonly linked to adventure-seeking personality types.

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