Your Coffee Choice - What Does it Say About You?

We know that the choices we make in life are governed, in large part, by our personalities.  If we are more outgoing and extroverted we will typically choose to attend events with lots of other people in attendance, while introverts will tend to prefer smaller, more intimate gatherings.  Those who are more innovative will choose t make fairly regular changes in and to their lives while those who are more comfortably conventional will tend to prefer the status quo.

That said though, are even small choices and preferences in our lives governed by our personalities?

According to clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula, author of You Are Why You Eat... yes.  In a recent survey of 1,000 coffee drinkers, Dr. Durvasula compared a number of facets of personality with each individual's coffee preference and discovered a number of consistent correlations.  It seems that the following were fairly consistent tendencies...

• Those who preferred their coffee black generally tended to like to keep things simple and consistent. As a result, they tended to be more change resistant than others.
• Latte drinkers tended to like to please others, often going out of their way to help others. This could sometimes be to their own detriment, where they took better care of others than themselves.
• Frozen/blended coffee drinkers were the trend setters.  They enjoyed trying new things and tended to be more spontaneous.  The down side is that they could also be a little reckless.
• Decaf and Specialty coffee drinkers were a little more obsessive and were more likely to be perfectionists, liking order and control.
• Instant coffee drinkers tended to be the most laid back but a little more prone to procrastination

Obviously there were (and are) exceptions to the above, but these were the common patterns that were noted from the people surveyed.  It seems that our personalities not only have an influence on the way in which we view the world around us, but the large and small choices we make as we navigate our way through it.

“Through our food preferences and choices we reveal inner thoughts, feelings, wishes and desires... It's no exaggeration to say that the foods we choose provide a window to our unconscious.”    Dr. Alan Hirsch, neurologist and psychiatrist, and founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago

All I'm left wondering now though... is what does it say about me that I don't drink coffee at all... I prefer tea?

To check out what else Dr. Ramani has to say, here's a link to her book...