Passion for an activity and its role on affect: Does personality and the type of activity matter?

While personality traits play a crucial role in a person's general affect, passion for an activity has been shown to partially mediate this relationship, with harmonious passion generally related to positive affect and obsessive passion to negative affect. However, activities are not all the same with some characterized as having positive consequences while others as having negative consequences. This study examines how passions manifest for two popular activities: physical exercise, an activity with in general positive consequences, and social media, an activity with potentially both positive and negative consequences. We replicate and extend earlier studies which have relied on baskets of heterogenous self-reported activities without distinguishing between activities. We find that, when fully controlling for personality, obsessive passion for physical exercise is positively associated with positive affect while obsessive passion for social media is positively associated with negative affect. However, harmonious passion for either activity has no significant association with any affect. Further, we find that passions for physical exercise relate with conscientiousness while passions for social media with neuroticism.

Automated summary

Personality traits strongly influence a person's affect, and passion for activities can partially mediate this relationship. Harmonious passion is related to positive affect, while obsessive passion is related to negative affect. This study examines the manifestations of passion for physical exercise, which has generally positive consequences, and social media, which can have both positive and negative consequences. The findings show that obsessive passion for physical exercise is associated with positive affect, while obsessive passion for social media is associated with negative affect. However, harmonious passion for either activity does not significantly influence affect. Additionally, passion for physical exercise is linked to conscientiousness, while passion for social media is linked to neuroticism.