Totem and animism beliefs in athletes: scale development and examination of psychometric properties

Competitive sport is characterized by uncertainty and performance pressure, which may prompt athletes to engage in belief-related behaviors such as rituals, symbolic object use, and superstitious practices. Although these behaviors are often described as superstitions, they may also be examined through interpretive frameworks derived from anthropological concepts such as totemism and animism. This study aimed to develop and validate the Totem and Animism Scale in Sport (TASS; see Supplementary File 1), a multidimensional measurement tool designed to assess belief-related dimensions associated with athletes' rituals, symbolic object attachment, and supernatural or animistic attributions in competitive sport contexts.

The study included 637 actively competing athletes, comprising 325 males and 312 females, with a mean age of 24.2 years. The sample included 270 athletes competing at the international (elite) level and 367 at the national level. Participants were randomly divided into two independent subsamples. Item reduction was conducted through expert panel evaluation and item-total correlation analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal axis factoring (PAF) with Promax rotation was conducted on the first subsample to examine the latent factor structure. The resulting 18-item model was subsequently evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the second subsample.

EFA supported a four-factor structure consisting of ritualism, supernaturalism, totemism, and superstition, accounting for 66.12% of the total variance. CFA indicated acceptable-to-good model fit (χ²/df = 2.057, RMSEA = 0.059, CFI = 0.958, NNFI = 0.946, GFI = 0.922). Internal consistency was high, with an overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.932, and composite reliability (CR) values ranged from 0.702 to 0.890 across the four factors.

The TASS appears to show acceptable initial psychometric evidence for assessing belief-related dimensions among athletes. By distinguishing ritualism, supernaturalism, totemism, and superstition as related but separate constructs, the scale may serve as a useful tool for sport psychology research in competitive contexts.