{"id":380,"date":"2018-11-15T21:33:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T22:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/?p=380"},"modified":"2025-02-19T18:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T18:42:36","slug":"a-bitter-buzz-the-psychology-behind-our-love-of-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/15\/a-bitter-buzz-the-psychology-behind-our-love-of-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bitter Buzz: The Psychology Behind Our Love of Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
\"NCA_Web_social_coffee_drop_crop.png\"<\/p>\n

A new study found that coffee drinkers are actually more sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Coffee is a complex beverage – and it’s experienced differently by everyone.<\/p>\n

Your appreciation (or not) of coffee is largely driven by genetics<\/a>, which control a host of factors raging from your caffeine tolerance to sensory perception.<\/p>\n

A new\u00a0study<\/a> from Northwestern University, recently published in Scientific Reports<\/em>, found that coffee lovers aren\u2019t less sensitive to the bitter taste of coffee – instead, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n

This suggests an interesting psychological phenomenon behind our love of coffee.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"limitless-coffee.gif\"<\/p>\n

People with genes indicating high sensitivity to quinine and propylthiouracil tended to drink less coffee on average, Forbes<\/em><\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

But humans generally have a genetic “inborn aversion towards bitterness,” to stop us from eating\u00a0 poisonous food.\u00a0So why do we keep refilling our cups?<\/p>\n

Researchers suggest a psychological phenomenon: \u201cIt is possible that coffee consumers acquire a taste for (or an ability to detect) caffeine given the learned positive reinforcement (i.e. stimulation) elicited by caffeine.”<\/p>\n

This means that coffee is literally an acquired taste, driven by our Pavlovian response associating the bitterness to the subsequent energy boost over time.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more: The Funny Psychology Of Why We Love The Taste Of Coffee<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Related: Is Caffeine In Your Genes?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gif via Giphy<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study found that coffee drinkers are actually more sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine. Coffee is a complex beverage – and it’s experienced differently by everyone. Your appreciation (or not) of coffee is largely driven by genetics, which control a host of factors raging from your caffeine tolerance to sensory perception. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/freeyourselfbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}