A person's character traits can be determined by their taste preferences.

According to recent studies, a person's personality traits are often linked to their behavior, feelings, and viewpoints. For instance, the level of extraversion can influence the desire to start a family and the overall satisfaction with life. Meanwhile, "dark" traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy have been connected by researchers to a tendency towards eco-activism.

Experts from Gettysburg College, Franklin and Marshall College (both in the USA), Berlin University of Health Sciences (Germany), and Queen's University in Kingston (Canada) investigated how personality traits relate to taste preferences. The findings of the research were published in the Journal of Research in Personality.

The authors of the article conducted a survey in four countries: China, Germany, Mexico, and the USA. After completing a questionnaire, 1,629 respondents shared their attitudes towards various dishes and provided information about their personality traits. The degree of a person's "likability" was assessed through questions that asked respondents to rate the truthfulness of statements like "People feel at ease in my presence" on a scale from one to five.

In the section about taste preferences, respondents were asked how much they liked different sweet dishes (for example, chocolate cake, ice cream, honey), as well as salty, sour, bitter, and spicy foods. Participants could also indicate if they had not tried any of the mentioned foods.

"Previous studies had already suggested a connection between 'likability' and a love for sweets, but the findings were limited to residents of the United States. We were curious to see if this pattern held true across different cultures and languages," the authors explained.

For the four countries involved in the new study, it indeed turned out that those who enjoy sweet dishes are generally considered the most pleasant to interact with. Although the identified correlation was not very strong (despite statistical significance), it was stronger than the connection between "likability" and a preference for salty foods, observed in China, Germany, and Mexico, as well as for spicy foods, which was found only in China.

"We should be cautious when making decisions based on our results. If, on a first date, you discover that someone doesn't like sweets, there's no need to urgently look for someone else. The key takeaway from our findings is that our thoughts and behaviors are often linked to our experiences and feelings," the researchers emphasized.

The authors of the article noted that the study has several limitations, such as relying on information provided by respondents. In the future, researchers believe it would be beneficial to observe participants in a controlled environment, as well as explore other personality traits and study cultures with different understandings of sweetness.