According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s physical activity recommendations, healthy adults should complete at least 150 minutes of activity per week. However, only 22.5% of adults and 19% of adolescents worldwide follow these recommendations and make lasting changes. Although it is known that physical inactivity is one of the risk factors for the development of dementia, it is still unclear whether personality influences enjoyment and engagement in specific forms of exercise, as well as the outcomes of a training intervention. Therefore, understanding how personality traits relate to engagement in physical exercise is key to promoting healthy interventions and physical education practice in schools, as well as to increasing the effectiveness of physical activity-related interventions. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology, a team of researchers led by Dr Flaminia Ronca (Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, University College London, UK) examined whether individual personality traits are associated to the enjoyment of different types of exercise, the completion of a prescribed exercise programme and the impact of that programme on the fitness level of the individual.
The study included 132 participants (56 females) who were recruited from the general public via email newsletters and social media advertisements. All the participants attended a fitness test in the laboratory and were assigned to the intervention (78 participants) and control (54 participants) groups. The intervention group participated in an eight-week cycling and strength training programme, while members of the control group were asked to maintain their normal lifestyle and were provided with a plan consisting of a weekly 10-minute stretching exercise. Of these 132 participants, 86 completed the entire study protocol (25 participants) and the intervention (51 participants). Participants completed an online questionnaire to assess personality traits (i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness).
Participants’ benchmark fitness levels were assessed at the beginning of the programme. Strength was tested via press-ups, performing a plank to failure and countermovement jumps. This was followed by a low-intensity cycling session for 30 minutes and a cycling test to measure peak oxygen capacity. Stress levels were also assessed on a scale from one to ten. Participants were asked to rate their enjoyment of each exercise session and had their fitness level tested again once the programme had been completed. The team of researchers found that extroverts tended to particularly enjoy high-intensity exercise, such as HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and cycling at maximum intensity. Participants with a strong neuroticism trait (tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety) preferred bursts of intensity rather than prolonged intensity. They also preferred for their heart rate not to be recorded, which suggests that people with this personality trait might appreciate being given space when engaging in physical activity and exercise.
These individuals also showed a significant reduction in stress levels, suggesting that there may be particular benefits in stress reduction for individuals with this trait. Those who were conscientious tended to score high on aerobic fitness and were generally more physically active. However, conscientiousness didn’t predict higher levels of enjoyment of a specific form of exercise, which can be explained by the fact that conscientious individuals tend to be driven by the health-related outcomes of engaging in exercise, rather than by their enjoyment. These results suggest a strong potential for the development of tailored programmes according to personality traits. Finding an exercise or a physical activity that is enjoyable might be what people need to make lasting lifestyle changes.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1587472/full