The Ice Bucket Challenge was a social media sensation that generated substantial awareness and funding for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or what is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The aim for this dissertation project was twofold. Through qualitative techniques we were able to describe using a Reasoned Action approach, what encouraged and discouraged participation. The second approach for describing Ice Bucket Challenge participation was through the lens of personality. The Big Five Inventory, a five-factor model of personality was measured for subsequent quantitative analyses. An online survey was completed by 416 respondents. Respondents were on average 30 years old, female (68%), and White/Caucasian (91%). Major themes for encouraging participation were social pressure, it being a good cause, knowing someone with ALS, raising awareness, and everyone was participating. Major themes for discouraging participation were concerns from posting a self-video, people were participating for wrong reasons, everyone was participating, being cold, and it was senseless. A binary logistic regression model identified that the dimensions of extraversion and agreeableness were significantly associated with participation in the Ice Bucket Challenge. This paper suggests that measurements of personality alongside other variables can be useful when explaining participation in a social media-based health campaign.
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