There’s a lot of talk about villagers having a sub personality and hobbies that they do only themselves or they do more often than others, but I don’t really see that with my villagers.
They tend to do all of the activities - singing, playing, exercising, twiddling with their fashion (Louie the jock ALWAYS carries a lil purse (love it tho)), sitting under trees, ect. And as I said, they don’t specifically do one activity more than the others either
A few of mine definitely seem more well-rounded than others. Most of mine have a distinct preference even though they DO engage in other activities as well (Antonio works out, Norma reads, Sydney sings, Benedict runs) but others, like Bubbles, Huck, and Hazel, seem to play, exercise, and stroll around with purses pretty regularly.
every villager is coded to have a specific hobby. RNG does dictate how often they'll engage in this hobby, though. a villager with the music hobby is more likely than others to sing, but can also do other things like work out or play.
All villagers have a subpersonality and hobby. However, having a hobby doesn't mean that's the only thing the villager will do. All my villagers will work out sometimes, I've seen all of them sing (although some sing only very rarely). The hobby just means they'll do those activities more frequently ^_^
In my experience, any villager is capable of doing any activity on the RS plaza, or if interacting with an object would cause them to do so (i.e. sing in front of a music player). But villagers will perform their subtype interest anywhere on the island and much more often than the RS plaza activities occur.
For example, Marina will sing in my campground woods, she'll sing at the airport entrance, she'll sing on the beach and by the river and sometimes she'll walk onto the plaza and do the same. That's because her interest is Music. Spike, whose interest is Nature, will only ever be found singing either on the plaza standing in one place without moving, or in front of a music player if he chooses to interact with it.
Yeah everyone does a bit of everything, but villagers will be doing their hobby/interest activity more often and in more places than other villagers will. I've never seen a non-Fitness villager wearing the sporty shades when they work out, but the Fitness villagers will. I've never seen a non-Nature villager looking at trees or flowers and writing notes.
I think maybe the villagers influence each other? I have the ACNH Guide on my phone and it lists all villagers and their hobbies so I can check it if I'm ever confused, but I feel like the villagers are often copying each other. Like a non-education hobby villager won't suddenly have a book for flowers and trees, but another villager might do a naruto run with another playful villager,
