Extraverts with autotelic personality traits are more likely to experience flow

A study of undergraduate students in California found that extraverted individuals with pronounced autotelic personality traits—those who engage in activities purely for the experience—were more likely to experience flow while playing the game Perfection alone. The research was published in the Journal of Personality.

Flow is a psychological state in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity, experiencing a deep sense of engagement and fulfillment. During flow, individuals often lose awareness of time and their surroundings due to intense concentration on the task at hand. This state is typically achieved when the challenge of the activity is perfectly matched to the individual’s skill level—neither too easy to be boring nor too difficult to cause anxiety.

While in flow, a person tends to feel a strong sense of personal control over the situation and its outcome, which enhances both performance and enjoyment. Flow is also associated with a deep sense of joy and creative satisfaction, even if the activity doesn’t result in an immediate reward. It is commonly experienced during activities that require both skill and challenge, such as playing a musical instrument, participating in sports, or engaging in a favorite hobby.

Study author Dwight C. K. Tse and his colleagues set out to examine how personality traits influence the experience of flow in different social contexts. They hypothesized that individuals with pronounced autotelic personality traits would be more likely to experience flow. The researchers also expected that participants who experienced positive emotions and those with higher motivation to engage in the task would be more likely to enter a flow state. Additionally, they anticipated that the relationship between extraversion and flow would vary depending on the social context.

The study involved 396 undergraduate students from the Psychology Participant Pool at the University of California, Riverside. All participants had been in a romantic relationship for at least six months.

Participants were asked to play the board game Perfection under three different conditions. In the first, solitary condition, participants completed the game tasks individually in separate rooms. In the “mere-presence” condition, romantic partners completed the tasks individually but in the same room. In the interactive condition, couples worked together on the same task, and instructions explicitly encouraged them to communicate during the activity. Perfection is a timed puzzle game in which players must fit uniquely shaped pieces into corresponding holes on the board before time runs out and the pieces pop out.

After each game condition, participants completed the Short Flow State Scale to assess their experience of flow. They also completed assessments of extraversion (from the Big Five Inventory), autotelic personality (using the Autotelic Personality Questionnaire), and current emotional state (via a 24-item scale measuring various emotions).

An autotelic personality is characterized by an intrinsic motivation to engage in tasks for their own sake. Extraversion is a personality trait associated with sociability, energy, and a tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others.

The results showed that individuals with strong autotelic personality traits experienced flow more frequently across all testing conditions. Extraversion was linked to stronger flow experiences in the two conditions where a romantic partner was present, but not in the solitary condition. However, in the solitary condition, extraversion predicted stronger flow only among individuals with high autotelic personality traits—not among those low in these traits.

Further analysis revealed that flow was more likely to occur in participants who experienced low-arousal positive emotions (e.g., calm, contentment) and less likely in those who experienced high-arousal negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, frustration). In other words, flow was more common in individuals who felt mild positive emotions and less common in those feeling strong negative emotions during the game.

The study sheds light on how personality influences the likelihood of experiencing flow. However, it’s important to note that all participants were undergraduate students, so the findings may not generalize to other demographic groups.

The paper, “Alone but flowing: The effects of autotelic personality and extraversion on solitary flow,” was authored by Dwight C. K. Tse, Ayodele Joseph, and Kate Sweeny.