1. Running Head: SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 1
PSYC 3000 Research Paper:
Superstition in Sport
Amy Hetherman - 200263390
Georgian College

2. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 2
Introduction
Superstitions and sports have gone together for quite a long time. They are the scapegoat that
some athletes and spectators utilize in order to psych them up for an event or an excuse for their poor
performance. According to the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Superstition is simply defined as;
“a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck[;] a belief
that certain events or things will bring good or bad luck” (Superstition, "Merriam-Webster"). Athletes
and spectators use these beliefs in luck as a way to hopefully allow them to play better in their
activities. There are many commonly known superstitions, such as; not washing a particular garment in
order to keep its luck, or, having the same pre-game routine every game because you won your last
game doing it.
Many researchers have looked at the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of superstitious
behaviours in the past. Notably, Graham I. Neil wrote an article entitled Demystifying Sport
Superstition for the SAGE Journals. In this he spoke about how, based on available information from
various educations, “The level and extent of involvement of the athlete in his sport emerges a key
determinant of the prevalence and seriousness with which superstition is endorsed” (Neil, 1982). With
this one simple line, and more, he can show how despite the insistence that superstitions work in the
sports world, ultimately it is the hard-work that is put into the sport that supports the superstition. In a
research study, entitled The Effect of Removing Superstitious Behavior and Introducing a Pre-
Performance Routine on Basketball Free-Throw Performance, researchers David J. Foster, David A.
Weigand, and Dean Baines stated; “Superstitions have similarities to pre-performance routines in that
they involve formal, repetitive, and sequential behavior, but are different in respect to function” (Foster,
et. al., 2006). This is a good example for how despite people's belief in superstitions they are basically
the same thing as a pre-game routine.
In a different article, author Kwaku Patrick Ofori speaks not only to the use of superstitions but

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specifically the Psychological consequences of superstitions in sport, as the title suggests. The author
makes two very interesting and important points. Firstly; “... superstitious and religious behaviour can
protect against debilitating interpretations of anxiety by increasing self-confidence or allowing athletes
to perceive symptoms as controllable and facilitative” (Ofori, 2013). In contradiction; “Apparent
contraction between an athlete’s personal superstitious behaviour and their teams’ superstitious
behaviour may give rise to self-doubt, which can erode the athlete’s confidence and create other
negative psychological consequences to team process” (Ofori, 2013). Despite their contradiction both
points stand out in their own way to proving the significance of superstition in sports. Without both
viewpoints it would be illogical to come to any kind of conclusions in the future on this topic.
Researcher M. Dhurup took a different approach to the idea of superstitions in sports, as the title
of his paper suggests; Illogical it may seem: Do team attachment, match outcomes and superior
performance of opposing teams shape superstitious behaviours among sport fans?. Instead of looking
at the athletes superstitions he looked into the fans superstitions because it is fairly well known that
fans are just as superstitious as players. He says; “... superstitious behaviours seem to have no
boundaries as male and female fans equally engage in superstitious behaviours. The correlations
analyses suggest that there is a concurrence between team attachment and superstitious behaviours
especially when playing against a superior opposition team” (Dhurup, 2013).
In a study entitled Superstitions of Canadian Intercollegiate Athletes: an Inter-Sport
Comparison authors C. Jane Gregory and Brian M. Petrie looked at students at the University of
Western Ontario to see if there is a difference between sports. They garnered some interesting results;
“Team sport athletes provided greater support for superstitions related to equipment[;] ... entering the
arena ... [and] repetitive rituals; ... . Individual sport athletes gave higher support for superstitions
related to wearing charms; ... [and] team cheers ...” (Gregory and Petrie, 1975).
A truly interesting article with results comes in the form of Superstitious Behavior in Sport:

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Level of Effectiveness and Determinants of Use in Three Collegiate Sports by Jared L. Bleak and
Christina M. Frederick. Their most interesting results gathered include; “... superstitious ritual use
varies across sports, and that most-used behaviors are not necessarily those rated most effective in
influencing sport performance” (Bleak and Frederick, 1998).
Method
When searching for articles for a project such as this there are a few approaches that can be
taken. Before anything can be done a topic must first be decided upon. The topic should be easy to
understand but deep enough that it can thoroughly searched for and still incite readers. Once a topic has
been decided upon researching can start. The best place to begin research is on a trusted public
database, a good example is Google Scholar; if nothing pertinent is found on there then go looking in
more private databases. These can be accessed through libraries or other institutions such as those.
Once in the data base there are three choice words to remember; “and”, “in” and “or”, these are
connector words. When connector words are utilized properly they could mean the difference between
a good selection and a poor one.
On databases such as Google Scholar these words are not searched for in the articles but are
used to ensure the information received is what is wanted. For example; the search “Superstition in
Sport” didn't bring up all articles with the word “in” in them but brought up articles that talked about
superstition in sport; that is the power of the connector word. On databases accessed through libraries it
is a good idea to start searching utilizing the “and” word. Once you get to the actual database desired it
will typically allow entering the word into two different search boxes with the “and” auto-generated in-
between, this ultimately narrows down the search because then its guaranteed that all of the results talk
about both superstition “and” sport rather than the phrase “superstition and sport”.
Once articles are found the first thing to do is read the abstract. If it is not understandable as a
whole then do not include it; if the abstract makes sense but there are some words or phrases not

5. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 5
understood then look them up and make final decisions then. Ultimately any article chosen should have
good results and/or hard facts that can be reflected upon to show solid interpretation. Once an article is
chosen a good way to find more is to look at the references for that article.
Results
In the article titles Chance orientation and Superstitious Behavior on the Putting Green authors
Judy L. Van Raalte, Britton W. Brewer, Carol J Nemeroff, and Darwyn E Linder utilize a laboratory
investigation to look into how superstitions develop in sport. Specifically they were hoping to prove
their hypothesis of; “superstitions are most likely to develop among people who believe that they can,
via their own actions, exert some control over their chance outcomes” (Van Raalte, et. al. 1991).
Subjects completed the Levenson chance orientation scale, then were put to a golf putting task for fifty
puts. Superstitious behaviors began to be defined as soon as they took their pick of golf balls out of a
dish, by color; if they made a put with a certain color then they were more likely to pick that color
again in future putts.
The main results of this experiment showed that people start making superstitious decisions as
soon as something good happens to them with a certain item or after doing a certain thing. However,
the experimental results that supported the hypothesis showed a strong negative correlation; this
correlation coming between their behavior and the score of their previously completed Levenson scale.
Therefore subjects that indicated that they believed that their actions could possibly control events,
even chance events, were more likely to partake in superstitious actions after making putts. (Van
Raalte, et. al. 1991)
In a similar experiment Perry B. Wright and Kristi J., Erdal wanted to test to see if the claim
that athletes were more superstitious during difficult tasks. They took forty college students and tested
them on forty putts each; twenty form the easy distance of three feet, and twenty from the more

6. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 6
difficult distance of nine feet. In order to factor in skill level they utilized a median split of the total
putts made. They continued the idea that using colored balls could insight superstitious behaviors,
similarly to the previously mentioned experiment; if students selected the same color after making a
putt that would be considered superstitious behavior.
In the end, there was a strong interaction between the difficulty of the putt and the persons skill
level on superstitious behavior. People with lower skill levels were seen to be more superstitious during
the easy tasks compared to the more difficult ones, whereas high skilled individuals were more
superstitious in the difficult tasks. The high skilled participants therefore supported the original claim
as they became more superstitious the more difficult the task became. However the less skilled
evidently did not support the claims. (Wright and Erdal, 2008)
The next article and experiment comes from Shana M. Wilson, Frederick G Grieve, Sarah
Ostrowski, Andrew Mienaltorski, and Ciara Cyr. They set out to examine how team identification and
outcome of the game can influence a fan's desire to display superstitious behavior. They examined 176
students from undergraduate psychology classes at a local university in Kentucky. There was a 2 x 2
method between subjects factorial design; team identification, high vs low, and game outcome, close vs
blowout. The subjects started out by filling out the Sport Spectator Identification Scale. They then
moved on to reading a randomly assigned vignette differing in game outcomes Then finally completed
the Superstition Questionnaire in order to measure their desire to complete superstitious behaviors
based on the reading.
Their results came out as likely expected. People with high team identification wanted to
perform behaviors more than people who had low team identifications. The effect on game closeness
was reported as almost significant. Fans were reported as more likely to be more superstitious during
games that were closer vs games that were blowouts. Ultimately there was no recorded interaction
between team identification and the game closeness. This study showed that there is a high effect on

7. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 7
people with more of a team identification and that the outcome of the game has a slight impact on the
viewers, however identification has more of an impact. (Wilson, et. al, 2013)
The next study aimed to determine the effect of personality and situational differences on
superstitious behaviors in sports, comparing at three non-professional levels of competition. There were
219 participants in this study. Their superstitious behavior was measured three different ways; the
number and kind of rituals, degree of feeling, and commitment to the rituals. Using a within-group
design to the study, the researchers manipulated the competition importance and the uncertainty level
utilizing different scenarios to examine the changes in the pre-game psychological tension and the
ritual commitment.
It was found that superstition in sport is positively correlated to athletic identity and pre-game
tension. The commitment to rituals tends to be affected by the level of competition. Also the ritual
commitment is typically greater when the importance and uncertainty of the game are higher. Overall
the results of this study seem to offer support for a hypothesis that sport superstition is a “psychological
placebo”.
The last study comes from Graham Neil, Bill Anderson, and Wendy Sheppard from McGill
University. The study aimed to determine the differences in the prevalence of superstition depending on
the different levels of sports involvement. They had 58 male and female intramural and varsity hockey
players partake in a questionnaire-assisted interview. This group had varying years of hockey playing
experience and amounts of practice and playing time.
Once the results were collected an analysis was conducted. This showed that the varsity men
players were the most superstitious, and the intramural women were the least superstitious. In the
middle were the intramural men and the varsity women whose analysis had little difference. Overall the
men had more superstitious behaviors in their hockey related activities. In the end, it was concluded
that a player is more likely to show superstitious behaviors the higher up their competition level and

8. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 8
involvement in the sport. (Neil, et. al., 1981)
Discussion
In conclusion, it is thoroughly shown that superstition in sport is neither a good nor a bad thing.
That being said it is more of an assistance. As can be seen through the multitude of articles referenced
in this paper there are more people related to sports and their events than not who partake and pride
themselves on their use of superstitious behaviors. Despite this fact there is still no conclusive proof
that superstitious behavior helps the player in any way, more so that it amplifies the already existent
skills that the players should rely upon.
The superstitious behaviors do act as sort of a pre-game routine which have shown very
promising results in assisting players in their quest for their good performance. Also there is a
difference between genders and level of participation in sport that helps dictate the level of
superstitious behavior a person partakes in. If a player is feeling more stressed or worried about a
particular game then it is also seen that they will participate more in superstitious behaviors as it has
been known to calm people down as they become more certain of their abilities in the event. Besides
the stress indicator people begin making superstitious decisions as soon as something good happens
because they made the action previously. Like choosing a golf ball because you holed it in the past.

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References
Bleak, J. L., & Frederick, C. M. (1998). Superstitious Behavior in Sport: Level of Effectiveness and
Determinants of Use in Three Collegiate Sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 21(1), 1.
doi:http://search.proquest.com/openview/d9bfab54f7b9ca1da65ea1967ff3be07/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819738
Brevers, D., Dan, B., Noel, X., & Nils, F. (2011). Sport Superstition: Mediation of Psychological
Tension on Non-Professional Sportsmen's Superstitious Rituals [Abstract]. Journal of Sport
Behavior, 34(1), 3-22. Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.eztest.ocls.ca/eds/detail/detail?sid=da125e92-7252-4b86-8e2b-
25a51b1e5ac8@sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2
NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==&preview=false#AN=58056291&db=s3h
Dhurup, M. (2013). Illogical it may seem: Do team attachment, match outcomes and superior
performance of opposing teams shape superstitious behaviours among sport fans? [Abstract].
African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 19(4.2), 1123-1134.
Foster, D. J., Weigand, D. A., & Baines, D. (2006). The Effect of Removing Superstitious Behavior and
Introducing a Pre-Performance Routine on Basketball Free-Throw Performance. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 18(2), 167-171. doi:10.1080/10413200500471343
Gregory, C. J., & Petrie, B. M. (1975). Superstitions of Canadian Intercollegiate Athletes: An Inter-
Sport Comparison. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 10(2), 59-68.
doi:10.1177/101269027501000205
Superstition. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/superstition
Neil, G., Anderson, B., & Sheppard, W. (1981). Superstitions Among Male and Female Athletes of
Various Levels of Involvement [Abstract]. Journal of Sport Behavior, 4(3), 137. Retrieved

10. SUPERSTITION IN SPORT 10
from http://search.proquest.com/openview/889875c1337ccdb2d39666fb7aee6bb5/1?pq-
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Neil, G. I. (1982). Demystifying Sport Superstition [Abstract]. SAGE Journals, 17, 99-124.
doi:10.1177/101269028201700108
Ofori, K. (2013). Psychological consequences of superstitions in sport [Abstract]. doi:N.A.
Van Raalte, J. L., Brewer, B. W., Nemeroff, C. J., & Linder, D. E. (1991). Chance orientation and
Superstitious Behavior on the Putting Green [Abstract]. Journal of Sport Behavior, 14(1), 41.
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pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819738
Wilson, S. M., Grieve, F. G., Ostrowski, S., Mienaltowski, A., & Cyr, C. (2013). Roles of Team
Identification and Game Outcome in Sport Fan Superstitious Behaviors. [Abstract]. Journal of
Sport Behavior, 36(4), 417-429. Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.eztest.ocls.ca/eds/detail/detail?sid=be08261a-3346-41d7-961f-
b413115e28db@sessionmgr4001&vid=0&hid=4102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2
NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==&preview=false#AN=91815441&db=s3h
Wright, P. B., & Erdal, K. J. (2008). Sport Superstition as a Function of Skill Level and Task Difficulty
[Abstract]. Journal of Sport Behavior, 31(2), 187-199. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?
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