Gupta, BhoomiDutt, Siddharth2020-04-102020-04-102018-04Gupta Bhoomi, Dutt Siddharth. Superstitious Behaviour in Sportspersons in Relation to Their Performance at Intercollegiate Level. Indian Journal of Mental Health . 2019 APR; 6(2): 192–2022394-66522394-4579http://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/195387Background: Superstitions are beliefs that fate is governed by uncontrollable external forces. Superstitionsplay a key role in sports since they associate with activities involving danger and lack of predictability. Therehas been a dearth of studies regarding the effect such superstitious beliefs have on athletes’ performance, andon the looking superstitions from a qualitative perspective, specifically on Indian population, hence thisstudy aims to explore the various superstitious beliefs (SB) endorsed by team sportspersons at intercollegiatelevel and analyze how these beliefs affect their sports performance. This study also aimed at analysing thegender differences within different team sports.Methods: Data was collected using purposive and snowball sampling technique. 50 sportspersons frombadminton, basketball, football, cricket, hockey, and volleyball participated. Semi- structured interviewswere conducted to obtain rich data. Content analysis was carried out to obtain the emerging themes.Results: The major themes which emerged from the data include nature, origin, frequency, impact,intentionality, evolution, and orientation of superstitions in reality.Conclusion: Further research is needed in the Indian context regarding sensitivity towards superstitious andthe need to incorporate them in coaching for enhancing performancesuperstitionssuperstitious behaviorteam sportsathletesperformanceJournal ArticleIndiaM.Sc. Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology, Christ University, BangaloreAssistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore