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Personality and Performance Amongst Athletes: A Systematic Review
Auston Hsieh1, Mahalaxmi Some1, Pradeep Vanguri2
1Department of Medicine, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
Cureus
|December 8, 2025
Summary
Athlete personality significantly impacts performance. Conscientiousness and extraversion boost athletic success, while neuroticism hinders it. Narcissism may enhance performance, but psychopathy is detrimental.
Area of Science:
- Sports Psychology
- Personality Psychology
Background:
- Athlete performance is influenced by physical, environmental, and psychological factors.
- Personality traits, including the Big Five, Dark Triad, and perfectionism, are key psychological determinants of athletic success.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a meta-analysis examining the relationship between various personality traits and athletic performance.
- To synthesize findings from recent studies on personality's impact on athletes.
Main Methods:
- A literature search was performed on PubMed using terms 'personality' and 'athletic performance'.
- Studies were filtered for relevance, recency (last 10 years), and primary research design, resulting in 22 included studies.
Main Results:
- Conscientiousness and extraversion positively correlated with athletic performance.
- Neuroticism was linked to poorer performance, while openness and agreeableness showed mixed results.
- Narcissism (Dark Triad) was associated with enhanced performance, psychopathy with poorer performance, and Machiavellianism with mixed outcomes. Perfectionism's impact varied by type.
Conclusions:
- Personality traits have a complex, non-binary effect on athletic performance.
- The influence of personality traits is context-dependent, varying with sport type, competition level, and other factors.
- Future research should explore confounding variables to better understand personality's role in athletic achievement.
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