Sport superstition as a function of skill level and task difficulty.

Abstract

Gmelch 's (1974) claim that professional athletes were more superstitious during difftcult tasks than easy tasks was tested in a golf putting experiment. Forty college students. 26 male and 14 female, of varying golfing abilities, were tested in 20 easy putts from 3 feet, and 20 difftcult putts from 9 feet. Using four colored balls, superstitious behavior was defined as selecting the same colored ball after a made putt, consistent with the methodology of Van Raalte, Brewer, Nemeroff, and Under (1991). Skill level was assessed by a median split of total putts made. There was a signiftcant interaction between level of putt difficulty and skill level on superstitious behavior. Low skill participants were more superstitious in the easy putting task than the difficult putting task, and high skill participants were more superstitious in the difficult putting task than the easy putting task. Gmelch's claims were .supported by the high skill participants' behavior and may be explained by the uncertainty hypothesis. The tow skill participants' behavior did not support Gmelch's claims, and may be better explained by the reciprocal nature of learned helplessness and superstitious behavior.