Imagining future guilt helps athletes turn away from doping

Date:
December 8, 2021
Source:
University of Birmingham
Summary:
Appealing to athletes' sense of 'future guilt' through psychological
intervention could prove a powerful weapon in the fight against
doping, according to a new study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Appealing to athletes' sense of 'future guilt' through psychological intervention could prove a powerful weapon in the fight against doping, according to a new study.


========================================================================== Researchers discovered that making elite athletes picture how guilty
they might feel about using banned performance enhancing drugs produced
a more powerful initial reaction than initiatives educating sportspeople
about the health risks of doping.

Working with 208 athletes across the UK and Greece, researchers carried
out two six-month trials -- one a psychological intervention focussing
on emotions and personal choice, the other an education programme
highlighting the risks and health consequences of doping.

Using real athlete stories and testimonies on video, they made
participants aware of emotions experienced by sportspeople who had doped, contrasting those feelings with emotions experienced by successful
athletes who competed clean.

Participants discussed the athletes' stories -- enhancing their
understanding of the emotions linked to doping. Researchers explored the justifications athletes use for doping (moral disengagement) and drew
attention to the consequences doping has for others -- whether family,
friends, teammates or other competitors.

While the psychological intervention was more powerful than its
educational counterpart, the experts found that receiving useful
information about doping, doping control processes, the risks of sport supplements, healthy nutrition, and the anti-doping rule violations strengthened athletes' confidence to resist the temptation to dope.



========================================================================== Publishing the study findings today in Psychology of Sport and Exercise,
the international team of experts, led by the University of Birmingham, therefore recommends that sports watchdogs combine both types of
intervention into a single programme.

Athletes from 19 sport clubs across the two countries were randomly
assigned to either the psychological or educational intervention, with researchers finding that results were consistent across both countries.

Project leader Maria Kavussanu, Professor in Sport & Exercise Psychology
at the University of Birmingham, commented: "We found that appealing to athletes sense of 'future guilt' through psychological intervention was
a powerful way of persuading sportspeople to steer away from doping.

"We focussed on psychological factors that have been empirically linked
to doping -- emotions. This social cognitive approach was as important
in reducing doping likelihood as educating athletes about the harms of
doping, the risks of supplements, and the importance of whistle blowing.

"Effective interventions must focus on preventing rather than
detecting doping and we believe that targeting psychological variables
in anti-doping interventions should help the regulatory authorities'
efforts to stamp out doping in sport." The use of prohibited performance enhancing drugs and methods can have significant health consequences for athletes, as well as posing a major threat to the integrity and image
of sport, while undermining fair play.

Despite significant global investment by governments on sophisticated
ways of tackling doping, the practice is common in both elite and amateur athletes with intentional doping in adult elite athletes as high as
57%. There is also a higher prevalence of doping among young males than
young females and athletes participating in strength-based sports.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Birmingham. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Maria Kavussanu, Vassilis Barkoukis, Philip Hurst, Mariya
Yukhymenko-
Lescroart, Lida Skoufa, Andrea Chirico, Fabio Lucidi, Christopher
Ring. A psychological intervention reduces doping likelihood
in British and Greek athletes: A cluster randomized controlled
trial. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 2021; 102099 DOI:
10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102099 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208110304.htm

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