We classified all respondents to our Sports Superstitions study as either “Unsuperstitious” or “Superstitious.” A respondent had to answer “Not at all paranoid”, “Not at all afraid”, and “Not at all fearful” to be labeled “Unsuperstitious.” (Even these unsuperstitious could have confessed to taking specific superstitious actions, however, but that question was asked of just a subset of respondents.) Even by this strict classification, 73% of respondents were Unsuperstitious vs. 27% Superstitious.
Of those who denied any fear or paranoia about affecting their team’s fortunes on the field by their actions at home, 34% still did at least one superstitious activity. But only 40% of the superstitious did at least one of these activities, compared to 66% of the unsuperstitious.
This is an excerpt from the free Researchscape white paper, “Sports Superstitions & The Big Game”. Download your own copy now:
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Author Notes:
Jeffrey Henning
Jeffrey Henning, IPC is a professionally certified researcher and has personally conducted over 1,400 survey research projects. Jeffrey is a member of the Insights Association and the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers. In 2012, he was the inaugural winner of the MRA’s Impact award, which “recognizes an industry professional, team or organization that has demonstrated tremendous vision, leadership, and innovation, within the past year, that has led to advances in the marketing research profession.” In 2022, the Insights Association named him an IPC Laureate. Before founding Researchscape in 2012, Jeffrey co-founded Perseus Development Corporation in 1993, which introduced the first web-survey software, and Vovici in 2006, which pioneered the enterprise-feedback management category. A 35-year veteran of the research industry, he began his career as an industry analyst for an Inc. 500 research firm.
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