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ABSTRACT
The current work examined the superstitious behaviors of sport fans. A sample of 1661 college students completed a questionnaire packet assessing demographics, team identification, sport fandom, superstitions, perceptions of superstition impact and importance, and why they engaged in the superstitions. A total of 675 persons reported at least one superstition. Higher levels of sport fandom and higher levels of team identification correlated with a greater number of superstitions listed. Further, persons with higher levels of team identification reported greater perceptions of the impact and importance of their superstitions. The categorization of the superstitions revealed that apparel superstitions were most prominent. Other prominent superstitions included vocalizations, consumption of food/drink (nonalcoholic), watching or not watching the action, and good luck charms/superstitious rituals.
In the past two decades, much has been learned about sport fandom due to the combined efforts of sport psychology professionals, sport sociologists and sport marketing/management professionals. Indeed, we now have a better understanding of many important aspects of the fan experience including biased perceptions of other fans, teams, and players (Markman and Hirt, 2002), aggression and hostility (Dimmock and Grove, 2005), emotional responses (Madrigal, 2003), and factors related to attendance (Laverie and Arnett, 2000), to name but a few. However, voids in our understanding of fans and spectators still remain. In the present investigation, we focused on one such void, namely, the superstitions of fans.
Superstitions are behaviors involving actions believed to lead to or cause a specified (usually desirable) outcome (Womack, 1992). Individuals engage in these behaviors because they believe there is a causal relationship between their action(s) and certain outcomes. With respect to sport fans, superstitious behavior would involve actions thought to assist a team (e.g., wearing a "lucky" shirt or sitting in a "lucky" seat will increase the team's chances of winning). It is important to differentiate between superstitious rituals and routine behaviors. Although superstitious rituals and routines are similar concepts, they are distinct. As noted, superstitious rituals and behaviors are believed to lead to or cause a specified outcome. Routines, on the other hand, involve a set or series of actions that lack a "special, magical significance" that is attributed to superstitious behaviors (Schippers and Van Lange, 2006, p. 2533). Superstitious rituals, more so than routines, are designed...