The Type Of Wine You Like Reveals A Lot About Your Personality, According To Psychologists
Halfpoint | Shutterstock Alright boozehounds, if you thought your drink preferences were just down to palate or good taste, you're about to be proven wrong: An AI analysis of wine reviews shows that your wine preference reveals your personality.
And wine snobs, you're probably not going to like this one! Although neither are you $5 grocery store box wine enthusiasts either. But whether you're on those extreme ends or somewhere in the middle, the analysis is a fascinating glimpse into the human psyche.
Psychologists say your wine preference reveals your personality.
If you remember the 2004 film "Sideways," you'll surely remember Paul Giamatti's wine-snob character, Miles, hilariously raging at his wine-indifferent best friend, Jack, that he refuses to drink merlot on their wine tasting weekend. Miles' merlot hot take went so viral at the time, back before that term even existed, that it actually tanked merlot sales for years afterward.
Perhaps it all came down to Miles' and Jack's psychology, because researchers at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University found a direct correlation between the Big Five personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, and people's wine preferences, especially with regard to alcohol content.
Alcohol content in wine isn't just about how easily it gets you tipsy; it's also a key component of a wine's flavor profile, body, aroma, texture, and overall flavor intensity. The higher the alcohol, the bolder the flavor. And when researchers trained an AI model to analyze nearly 10,000 online wine reviews, they found a fascinating relationship between personality type and alcohol preference.
People with high Openness and Agreeableness like higher-alcohol wines.
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Among the aforementioned Big Five personality traits, "openness" refers to a person's intellectual curiosity and affinity for new experiences, while "agreeableness" shows a preference for cooperation and harmonious social dynamics.
It makes sense that these two types of people would have an affinity for each other, and it turns out that extends to their wine preferences, too. The researchers found that people who scored high on these two traits preferred high-alcohol wines.
Because high-alcohol wines tend to have much more complex flavor profiles, researchers posit that high-openness individuals, who are enthusiastic about new experiences, naturally gravitate towards them for their novel and interesting taste.
As for high-agreeableness people, researchers theorize that their preference for high-alcohol wines stems from the prestige and perceived quality of such wines. Wanting to follow social norms, these people are drawn to the well-liked, well-accepted wines.
People with high Extraversion and Neuroticism liked lower-alcohol wines.
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Those who preferred the less bold, lower-alcohol wines were somewhat surprising. Researchers found that the more extraverted a person was, the more they preferred lower-alcohol wines with a much milder flavor profile.
You'd think the party animals of the world would want the strongest, highest-quality drink, right? But researchers said this is likely due to a preference that's not about the wine at all: Extraverts want the party and socializing to last as long as possible, so they pick the wine that is easiest to keep on drinking so the good times call roll on.
As for the high-neuroticism folks? Well, neuroticism is in no small way about wanting to be in control, and the low-alcohol wines present less of a risk of getting TOO schnockered to be able to handle your scandal. And especially due to the ways alcohol can impact our emotions, researchers theorize the neurotic's preferences were likely a form of self-protection.
The wild card was the people who scored high on conscientiousness, whose preferences were all over the map.
When it comes to the people of high conscientiousness, they seem to be the true neutrals of the wine-loving world. Conscientious people are usually disciplined and careful about their health, which would indicate they would choose lower-alcohol wines.
But they are also goal-oriented and often focus on the quality of things, suggesting they'd gravitate to the more prestigious wines. Instead, their preferences were all over the map. They didn't seem to follow any pattern at all, leading researchers to theorize that these competing values and preferences were basically canceling each other out.
Of course, a study done by AI of one single segment of the population, people who buy wine online and are vocal about their thoughts about it, can't necessarily be said to be comprehensive and conclusive.
But the findings do make a sort of sense. The next time you disagree with a friend at the restaurant about what bottle of wine to buy, perhaps you'll notice the ways it comes down not just to taste, but to differing personalities. Who knew?
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
