If *This* Is How You Like Your Coffee, It Means You’re A Psychopath

All the coffee drinkers out there know how they like their coffee. How much sugar? How much milk? What type of milk? The options are endless! However, research from Austria’s University of Innsbruck suggests that you might want to pay close attention to other customers’ coffee orders (and your own 😬) next time you’re standing in line.

Researchers gave personality assessments to nearly 1,000 participants and evaluated them for “Machiavellian” characteristics such as psychopathy, narcism, and sadism. The participants were also given questionnaires that asked them to self-report some of their taste preferences. According to the study, their results confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that bitter taste preferences for foods and drinks — like black coffee — are associated with malevolent personality traits.

If you started having instant flashbacks to all those rushed times when you gave up and just drank your java black, don’t freak out.

Over time, our experiences and circumstances have the potential to influence and diversify our palette. For instance, as infants, we might have an adverse reaction to bitter foods like coffee, but most feel differently by the time they reach adulthood. The study also notes that all the data collected was self-reported by all the participants, which could have been a potential limitation in the experiment.

Reader’s Digest summed it up well: not all black coffee drinkers are psychopaths, but most people who drink black coffee exhibit psychopathic tendencies. Then again, caffeine has been found to have proven health benefits, and drinking it in general can make you more likeable at work.

If you’re really concerned about you or a friend having black coffee tendencies, here are some delicious ways to upgrade your cup ‘o joe. Cheers!