Communicative Dimensions of Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior and Superstition in Sport Performance

Abstract

This study explores obsessive–compulsive behaviors and superstition in sport as functional communicative and motivational mechanisms embedded in athletes’ performance routines. Based on a descriptive longitudinal analysis of 224 professional sporting events across football, basketball, tennis and athletics (2020–2024), the findings indicate that ritualized behavior is systematically present among athletes and serves as a mechanism of perceived control, emotional regulation and performance stabilization. The analysis integrates frameworks from psychology and communication theory, including perceived control theory, cognitive dissonance, self-efficacy, symbolic interactionism and placebo research. The results suggest that rituals operate as metacommunicative structures through which athletes organize internal states and mobilize neurocognitive resources associated with expectation and belief. The paper also introduces the author’s AAPG model (Awareness–Arousal–Promotion–Grounding) as an interpretative framework for understanding motivational and communicative dynamics in elite sport. The study concludes that superstition and ritual behavior represent adaptive psychological instruments rather than residual irrationality.

DOI:  doi:10.5671/ca.49.1.8