Personality and leisure activities: an illustration with chess players

The present study investigated the relationship between personality and involvement in a leisure activity: chess playing. The participants comprised three groups of highly competitive chess players, moderately competitive chess players, and a comparison group of non-players (n = 20 each). The results showed that of the six personality characteristics under investigation all chess players differed from the comparison group in terms of unconventional thinking and orderliness. In addition, highly competitive players differed from non-players in being also significantly more suspicious. The three groups did not differ significantly on neuroticism, aggressive tendency, and hostility. Implications concerning future studies of the relationship between personality and involvement in competitive leisure activities are discussed.