Personality Based Gamification: How Different Personalities perceive Gamification

Personality is known to moderate task performance, learning styles, and gaming preferences. With the inclusion of game elements into non-game contexts such as education and workplaces, it is essential to develop models that will help explain and predict the influence of personality in environments that are, unlike the existing research, both ludic and utilitarian at the same time. In this study which is the first in a series of studies, we apply game elements to an undergraduate information systems course and examine the students perception of playfulness (n=102). Students completed a five factor personality test and answered questions about their preference for specific game elements and their overall playfulness from the gamification applied. T-tests and Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis were performed comparing low and high measures of each personality trait revealing a higher preference level for badges by introverts and higher levels of preference from progression by agreeable personalities. Several significant differences in the overall playfulness were found in the relations of the path model and are presented. The significance of these results comes from the understanding that playfulness from game elements is not always granted and depends among other factors on personality.