Professor develops psychometric whisky flavour test

An Edinburgh psychologist has created a psychometric test which he says is capable of predicting your whisky taste preferences based on your personality.

The Flavour Behaviour test claims to be able to match personality types to flavours of whisky, and is the result of a six-month scientific study carried out by Dr Adam Moore, a psychologist and research scientist based at the University of Edinburgh, and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

To create the test, Dr Moore and the SMWS conducted research with more than 300 volunteers at tasting events in Edinburgh, London, Islay, Washington DC, Vancouver and Melbourne.

Each volunteer was asked to answer a personality test measuring the ‘big five’ personality dimensions – openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

They then rated the 12 core flavours found in whisky such as sweet, fruity and mellow, light and delicate, juicy, oak and vanilla, oily and coastal and heavily peated.

From this, Dr Moore was able to determine correlations between the most dominant personality traits and preferred whisky flavours, creating an algorithm to predict a person’s preferences.

“This has been a particularly exciting research study to be involved in as taste is the least understood of our senses, and this is the first project I’m aware of that has investigated the links between personality traits and preferences for whisky flavours”, said Dr Adam Moore.

“Together with the Society, we’ve used decision-making science and psychometric techniques to gather data from research events around the world to create this test, which we hope will help people to find the perfect whisky for them. These are early stages for this kind of research, but it’s fascinating to think where this type of study could lead for both how food and drink producers make goods and how consumers choose them.”

Helen Stewart, senior brand manager at the SMWS, added: “We believe there is a perfect whisky flavour out there for everyone. The Flavour Behaviour Test is a fun and scientifically researched way to help with that search for the perfect dram – from novices struggling to find a whisky flavour they like among all the different varieties, or aficionados looking for inspiration for new whisky flavours to try.”

See how accurate the Flavour Behaviour test is at predicting your preferences by taking the test here.