A wonderful part of the human experience is that we are all different. Every person has a different combination of personality traits, contributing to what makes us a unique individual. These personality traits bleed into every component of our lives, helping to explain why we do what we do — health and wellness included. 

Sport psychologists have long been interested in why different people succeed at different types or levels of sports in an attempt to identify and promote success within the sports world. As a result, many scholars have conducted research on how personality types impact sport performance. While this is not necessarily helpful for the everyday person, this research has been extended to examine differences in physical activity types and levels as a means of health promotion. 

Therefore, this article will explore the primary model of personality traits and share the current research on the links between personality traits and sport/physical activity performance. Hopefully, this will help you to understand how your own personality potentially impacts your exercise behaviors. 

Five Factor Model of Personality (a.k.a. the “Big 5”)

The predominant model of classifying personality traits within the field of Psychology is known as the five factor model of personality — or, the “Big 5.” Essentially, there are five personality trait dimensions that account for the wide variety of traits that we see within human personalities. These are long-lasting traits that categorize people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions (McCrae & Costa, 2008). Many folks use the acronym(s) OCEAN or CANOE to help remember these personality traits described below:

• Openness to experience: People who are high in openness tend to have a wide range of interests and are willing to be creative and try out new things. They also tend to be a bit more adventurous. People low in openness dislike change, trying new things, or abstract concepts.
• Conscientiousness: People high in conscientiousness are generally fairly thoughtful, task focused, and orderly in their goal pursuits. They tend to plan ahead and think about the way things are interacting to get things done. People low in conscientiousness tend to dislike structure and routine and sometimes struggle with getting things done in a timely manner. 
• Extraversion: People high in extraversion tend to be assertive and sociable, talkative, and express a lot of emotions. They tend to thrive in social situations. People low in this personality trait tend to find social situations draining (though they still may be competent in them) and dislike being the center of attention.
• Agreeableness: People who are high in agreeableness are highly cooperative and polite, preferring to keep the peace rather than create conflict. People low in agreeableness tend to take little interest in other people or their needs.
• Neuroticism: People who are high in neuroticism are prone to experiencing negative emotions like anxiety, depression, and irritation. These folks tend to get upset fairly easily and experience significant highs and lows in moods. People low in neuroticism deal well with distress, are generally relaxed, and can be classified as emotionally stable. 

The great thing about these five personality traits is that there are strengths associated with each of them. For example, folks who are high in neuroticism (often considered a less desirable trait) also tend to be highly intelligent and have a strong sense of humor. There is no one personality trait that is considered “good” or “bad,” though some facets of particular traits may help you to adapt and cope with life challenges more than others (McCrae & Costa, 2008; Cherry, 2022).

It is important to note here that while we can often see ourselves within these different personality traits, a true personality test should be administered by a trained professional. The various free quizzes you take online are not always valid or reliable indicators of your true personality (especially if it is telling you your personality in the form of a pasta shape or something similar). 

Big 5 and exercise

Research shows that people with different personality traits have different tendencies when it comes to their sport and physical activity behaviors. An important caveat to introduce here is that these are not necessarily causal relationships, meaning having a particular personality trait does not guarantee 100% that a person will do or think any one thing. What I am presenting here are simply tendencies within each personality trait.

Three of the personality traits (conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism) have each been consistently linked with significant athletic and physical exercise tendencies. Conscientious people generally tend to engage in more positive health behaviors and a greater variety of healthy behaviors throughout their entire lives (Hoyt et al., 2009). Athletes also tend to score higher on conscientiousness than non-athletes (Malinauskas et al., 2014). There are likely a few reasons for these differences. First, they tend to have better preparation strategies, take fewer risks, and have more effective coping strategies that make their physical activity more likely and consistent (Allen & Laborde, 2014). Second, conscientious people tend to have greater self-regulation and self-discipline to turn their health-related intentions into actual behaviors (Rhodes et al., 2005). Third, exercise satisfies a need for competence and gives conscientious folks greater intrinsic pleasure/motivation (Ingledew et al., 2004). Finally, conscientious people tend to have internalized an athletic-ideal body type, meaning they tend to seek out an athletic appearance (for example, highly muscular; Martin & Racine, 2017). Therefore, it may be important for folks who are lower in conscientiousness to be more intentional about self-discipline and finding the pleasure and joy in exercise. 

People high in extraversion tend to have greater levels of physical activity and respond to unsuccessful outcomes with more adaptability, holding more positive cognitive and emotional responses (Allen & Laborde, 2014). Additionally, they tend to be on team sports over endurance-based sports (Malinauskas et al., 2014), likely due to team sports fulfilling a need for connection and socializing held by extraverts (Ingledew). Furthermore, extraverts who are specifically more adventurous (a subcomponent of extraversion) tend to be more familiar with exercise and perceive it to be under their control, resulting in more exercise behaviors (Rhodes et al., 2005). At the same time, extraversion is related to greater levels of compulsive exercise as well (Martin & Racine, 2017). If you find that you are low in extraversion, consider finding the reasons that physical activity and movement are important for you outside of connection with others. 

When it comes to neuroticism, there are mixed findings with regards to exercise. People who are more neurotic — and specifically high in the subcomponent of insecurity — tend to be more normatively influenced and will exercise if they receive guidance and social cues that this is desirable (Rhodes et al., 2005). Furthermore, people who are less neurotic tend to be more self-determined in their exercise, meaning they are more likely to follow through with any planned exercise behaviors (Ingledew et al., 2004). Folks high in neuroticism may consider using exercise or physical activity as a means to cope with the negative emotions (ideally, this would be one coping tool among many). 

However, beyond these associations between exercise behaviors and a single personality trait, certain combinations of personality traits can help to explain a lot of sport and exercise behavior as well. More specifically, athletes at the national and international levels of competitive sports tend to be higher in conscientiousness and lower in neuroticism (Allen & Laborde, 2014). Generally, people who are low in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness, and high in neuroticism tend to spend more of their days in a sedentary state (Allen & Laborde, 2014). People high in neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness and low in agreeableness tend to be more prone to exercise addiction (Allen & Laborde, 2014). Finally, people who score higher on both extraversion and conscientiousness tend to perceive that they have greater control over their ability to engage in and maintain their exercise behavior, contributing to greater levels of physical activity overall (Hoyt et al., 2009). I don’t share these combinations to indicate that you should see yourself in any of them, but to outline how complicated the relationship between personality and physical activity is. Regardless of your personality type, there is likely some benefit toward physical activity and finding that will help you to leverage your strengths. 

Bidirectional relationship

Sometimes seeing these types of results can feel a bit depressing. After all, our personalities are pretty set in stone and don’t change much, right? Well, not exactly.

We see that the relationship between personality and exercise is actually bidirectional, meaning they both influence one another. A recent longitudinal study examining personality change actually found that physically active adults show less decline in certain (desirable) personality traits than those who are less active. This ultimately indicates that physical activity helps to maintain the personality traits that are deemed more adaptive (Allen & Laborde, 2014). So, physical activity is actually protective and may promote positive personality traits. More evidence that getting in that movement is important!

Personality can tell us lots of things about our personal tendencies and ways we are likely to think or act, but I also don’t want anyone to take this prescriptively. We can also use other factors (like personal interests, discipline, motivation, etc.) to help us form and maintain healthy behavioral habits. However, let us know below if you see yourself within any of these common personality-exercise behavior links!

References

Allen, M. S., & Laborde, S. (2014). The role of personality in sport and physical activity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(6), 460-465. 

Cherry, K. (2022, August 4). What are the big 5 personality traits? Verywellmind.

Hoyt, A. L., Rhodes, R. E., Housenblas, H. A., & Giacobbi, P. R. (2009). Integrating five-factor model facet-level traits with the theory of planned behavior and exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 565-572. 

Ingledew, D. K., Markland, D., Scheppard, K. E. (2004). Personality and self-determination of exercise behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 1921-1932. 

Malinauskas, R., Dumciene, A., Mamkus, G., & Venckunas, T. (2014). Personality traits and exercise capacity in male athletes and non-athletes. Perceptual & Motor Skills: Motor Skills & Ergonomics, 118(1), 145-161. 

Martin, S. J., & Racine, S. E. (2017). Personality traits and appearance-ideal internalization: Differential associations with body dissatisfaction and compulsive exercise. Eating Behaviors, 27, 39-44. 

McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (2008). The five-factor theory of personality. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 159–181). The Guilford Press.

Rhodes, R. E., Courneya, K. S., & Jones, L. W. (2005). The theory of planned behavior and lower-order personality traits: interaction effects in the exercise domain. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 251-265.