Health

Do you crave pinot grigio or prefer a nice Riesling? Turns out a glass of wine may be more than just a drink—your choice could shed light on your personality too.

For example, people who choose sweet wines seem to be more impulsive but less open to new experiences than those who select a drier vintage, according to a study published in Food Quality and Preference.

“We now know that impulsivity relates to a preference for sweetness,” says lead researcher Anthony Saliba, PhD, a consumer sensory specialist at the National Wine and Grape Industry Center at the Charles Sturt University, in Wagga Wagga, Australia. “This is a pretty big step forward in understanding how a preference for sweet taste develops.”

In the study, Saliba and colleagues asked 45 men and women with an average age of 43 to complete two questionnaires: the IVE, which measures impulsiveness, venturesomeness, and empathy; and the Big Five, which measures openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Then the participants had a choice of two types of white wine: a dry, fruity Spanish wine (Gran Tesoro Viura, 2007) or a “sweet” wine, which was the Viura with some added sugar.

Overall, there were no differences between the two groups based on their choice. However, the researchers did find two characteristics that seemed to matter: impulsiveness and openness. People who preferred the sweet taste had greater impulsivity but less openness.

People who score lower on the openness trait are more hesitant to try new things. “This suggests that people who like sweet foods are less likely to try new tastes,” says Saliba. A 2002 study in Personality and Individual Differences found that people who score lower in openness tend to have unhealthier eating habits compared to those with high scores. link..