Bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666315300428

by nreece • 9 months ago

7 6 9 months ago

sciencedirect.com

andy99• 9 months ago

Right, just like an aquiline nose and steep brow

Edit to add: 2016

paradox242• 9 months ago

This is definitely going to be one of those studies that fails to replicate.

doubled112• 9 months ago

Does this mean that people like their coffee like their personality?

zug_zug2• 9 months ago

So since this study is just mechanical Turk it’s entirely possible that this is nothing.

Supposed x% of participants are bots or answer randomly — if we’re measuring a trait that isn’t significantly more common than x% then s big portion of answers for any atypical response (eg I hate other people, I prefer taste of straight coffee beans) will both be random bots and correlate

galagawinkle489• 9 months ago

Why would random answers correlate? Statistical significance for something like this is all about rejecting results consistent with randomness. Correlation means it appears to be non-random.

zug_zug2• 9 months ago

So for a simple example:

Suppose 1/20 people are sadistic, and 1/20 people love eating bitter food.

Let's suppose each question is multiple choice with a T/F.

Let's suppose also 1/10 respondents are bots that answer randomly.

Of the people who answer they like sadism on a given question, 66% will be bots. And of the people who say they like bitterness 66% will be bots.

For simplicity sake consider a simple two-question survey (one question about sadism, one about bitter food).

In this case you will get the following numbers, even if there's no genuine correlation:

[One bot in each category] - 1/40 like both

- 3/40 like bitterness but NOT sadism

- 3/40 like sadism but NOT bitterness

- 33/40 like neither

So you would conclude if you like bitterness (4 people) you have a (1/4) 25% chance of liking sadism, whereas if you don't like bitterness (36 people) you have a (3/36) 8% chance of liking sadism. Therefore liking bitterness would appear to predict to liking sadism (when really both are just predictors of being a bot).

Bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits

Related Stories