A comparison of sensation-seeking and personality measures between road cyclists and mountain bikers

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sensation seeking needs and personality variables and an individual's selection of sport or exercise. Participants in the study were 77 cyclists from the Southwest region of the United States. Each participant completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Revised and the Sensation Seeking Scale - Form V. A 2 x 2 analysis of variance, with Gender at two levels and Group at two levels (mountain bike group vs. road bike group), was used to test sixteen null hypotheses.; Findings and conclusions. Neither sensation seeking needs or personality traits were found to significantly influence an individual's choice of sport selection between to disciplines within the same type of sport. More specific to cycling, personality was not found to be a good predictor of an individual's choice between mountain biking and road cycling. It would appear then that the use of personality assessment measures to predict sport preference would only be modestly beneficial at the most general levels of sport selection. These results were found to be consistent in their findings with previous research in the literature.