Personality Factors’ Influence on Walking in Programs with Financial Incentives

Faculty adviser: Prof. Alexander RothmanEfforts to encourage people to engage in healthy and preventative health care in general are growing trends. This study was a pilot study to evaluate the methodology of a larger study examining the effects of paying people to walk, a low impact form of exercise. Participants were offered a financial incentive for walking a certain amount over the course of a week. Participants completed a set of self-report questionnaires to evaluate their locus of control, their Big Five personality traits, and their motivational style. Having an internal locus of control was specifically hypothesized to be correlated positively with greater walking performance. Correlations were computed to determine if any of the personality factors could be potential influences or predictors of walking performance in programs that offer financial incentives. While significant results were not obtained, extraversion and extrinsic motivation were two personality factors that were correlated with the amount participants walked. Locus of control was not correlated with the amount walked.This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)