Gin lovers: sit back and pour yourself a big one, this news is hard to swallow. It turns out, if your go-to drink is the humble but classic G&T - or any other gin-based concoction - you're a psycho. According to a study by Innsbruck University in Austria, anyway. Researchers tested 1,000 willing participants - with varying degrees of appreciation for the juniper-berry-based drink - and concluded gin drinkers are more likely to have psychopath tendencies compared to non-gin drinkers.
The experiment asked volunteers to rank a list of food and drink - which included gin and other bitter-tasting things such as coffee and dark chocolate - before they were required to complete a personality test. The test was designed to measure the individuals' psychopathic tendencies by asking how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements such as, 'I enjoy tormenting people' and 'given enough provocation, I may hit someone' - a defining psychopathic qualities.
Researchers' findings concluded that while most people are put off bitter tastes i.e. gin etc because we subconsciously associate them with 'poisonous' foods, psychopaths are drawn to these, according to the study's author Christina Sagioglou.
"General bitter taste preferences emerged as a robust predictor for Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism," researchers wrote. But before you go cry into a goblet of gin, we have some good news. Although gin-lovers have psychopathic potential, they were also found to be smart, assertive and cool under pressure.
Will this make you think twice about reaching for the gin? Let us know your thoughts @soFeminineUK
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