Personality and Walkability: Predicting Walking Behaviour in Urban Settings using the Higher Order Factors of the Big Five amongst Malaysian Adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v9.n1.893Abstract
Walkability has now been a popular policy to be adopted in the city centre as traffic congestion and inefficient public transportation have affected the mobility of the urban users prior to the pandemic. The pandemic has paved more efforts to improve the design of urban spaces to increase walkability in the cities. In the attempt to predict walking activity amongst Malaysian adults psychologically, a personality test using Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) was conducted in relation to individual walking frequency in urban settings. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze the predicting capacity of personality constructs control by general intelligence in relation to walking behaviour. The results show that the higher order meta-traits of the big five personality traits which are Stability (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and Plasticity (Extraversion and Openness to Experience) can be used as a reliable predictor for individual walking behaviour. As hypothesized, walking behaviour amongst Malaysians was characterized by reversed Stability (r = -.58) and high Plasticity (r = .76). The implication suggested the necessity of cognitive navigability and design predictability metrics of urban design cognitive performance in influencing the psychological factor of walking behaviour
References
Adkins, A., Dill, J., Luhr, G., & Neal, M. (2012). Unpacking Walkability: Testing the Influence of Urban Design Features on Perceptions of Walking Environment Attractiveness. Journal of Urban Design, 17(4): 499–510.
Allik, J., Realo, A., Mõttus, R., Pullmann, H., Trifonova, A., & McCrae, R. R. (2009). Personality traits of Russians from the observer's perspective. European Journal of Personality, 23: 567–588.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Autism spectrum disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
Bogg, T., & Roberts, B. W. (2004). Conscientiousness and health-related behaviors: A meta-analysis of the leading behavioral contributors to mortality. Psychological Bulletin, 130(6): 887–919.
Bleidorn, W., Schönbrodt, F., Gebauer, J. E., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2016). To live among like-minded others: Exploring the links between person-city personality fit and self-esteem. Psychological Science, 27: 419–427.
Bueker, S., Ebert, T., Gotz, F.M., Entriger, T.M., and Luhmann, M. (2020). In a lonely place: Investigating regional differences in loneliness. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Claris, S, Lueblceman, C, Scopelliti, D and Hargrave, J (2016). Cities Alive: Towards a Walking World. London: Arup
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal Personality Assessment in Clinical Practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4(1): 5–13.
Depue, R. A., & Collins, P. F. (1999). Neurobiology of the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(3): 530–531.
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between Facets and Domains: 10 Aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5): 880–896.
Friedman, H. S. (2019). Neuroticism and health as individuals age. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 10(1): 25–32.
Graziano, W.G and Eisenberg, N. (1997). Agreeableness: A Dimension of Personality. Handbook of Personality Psychology795–824. San Diego: Academic Press,
Gehl, J. (1971). Life between buildings: using public space. London: Island Press
Götz, F.M., Yoshino,S., Oshio, A. (2020). The association between walkability and personality: Evidence from a large socioecological study in Japan. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69: 101438, ISSN 0272-4944.
Hoe, S. L. (2008). Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Issues and procedures in adopting structural equation modelling technique. 76–83.
Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Jensen, W.A., Stump, T.K., Brown, B.B., Werner, C.M and Smith, K.R (2017). Walkability, Complete Streets, and gender: Who benefit most? Health Place, 48: 80-89.
Jokela, M., Bleidorn, W., Lamb, M. E., Gosling, S. D., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2015). Geographically varying associations between personality and life satisfaction in the London metropolitan area. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112: 725–730.
Jokela, M. (2020). Selective residential mobility and social influence in the emergence of neighborhood personality differences: Longitudinal data from Australia. Journal of Research in Personality, 86: 103953.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modelling. New York: Guilford Press.
Laidra, K., Pullmann, H., & Allik, J. (2007). Personality and intelligence as predictors of academic achievement: A cross-sectional study from elementary to secondary school. Personality and Individual Differences, 42(3): 441–451.
Liu, D., & Campbell, W. K. (2017). The Big Five personality traits, Big Two meta traits and social media: A meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 70(August): 229–240.
Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the city. London: The M.I.T Press
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Personality Trait Structure as a Human Universal. American Psychologist, 52(5): 509–516.
Mesurado, B., Mateo, N. J., & Valencia, M. (2014). Extroversion: Nature, development and implications to psychological health and work life. Psychology of Extraversion, (October): 107–119.
Peterson, J. B., Smith, K. W., & Carson, S. (2002). Openness and extraversion are associated with reduced latent inhibition: Replication and commentary. Personality and Individual Differences, 33(7): 1137–1147.
Peterson, J. B. (2012). Three forms of meaning and the management of complexity. The Psychology of Meaning., (January 2013): 17–48.
Rapoport, A. (2013). Human aspects of urban form: Towards a man-environment approach to urban form and design. 3rd Edition. Oxford: Pergamon Oxford.
Raynor, D. A., & Levine, H. (2009). Associations between the five-factor model of personality and health behaviors among college students. Journal of American College Health, 58(1): 73–82.
Rentfrow, P. J. (2010). State-wide differences in personality: Toward a psychological geography of the United States. American Psychologist, 65: 548–558.
Rigdon, E. E. (1996). CFI versus RMSEA: A comparison of two fit indexes for structural equation modelling. Structural Equation Modelling, 3(4): 369–379.
Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., & Frank, L. D. (2003). Environmental correlates of walking and cycling: Findings from the transportation, urban design, and planning literatures. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 25(2): 80–91.
Speck, J. (2011). Walkable City: How downtown can save America one step at a time. New York: North Point Press
Thielman, J., Rosella, L., Copes, R., Lebenbaum, M., & Manson, H. (2015). Neighborhood walkability: Differential associations with self-reported transport walking and leisure-time physical activity in Canadian towns and cities of all sizes. Preventive Medicine, 77: 174–180.
Wei, W., Lu, J. G., Galinsky, A. D., Wu, H., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Gui, W. (2017). Regional ambient temperature is associated with human personality. Nature Human Behaviour, 1: 890–895.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright of articles that appear in International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability belongs exclusively to Penerbit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Penerbit UTM Press). This copyright covers the rights to reproduce the article, including reprints, electronic reproductions or any other reproductions of similar nature.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- This Journal applies Creative Commons Licenses of CC-BY-NC-SA
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
