In the study, conducted in the UK, Greece and Denmark, 1500 athletes were asked to complete a questionnaire about two hypothetical doping situations. Participants were male and female elite football players, competing just below professional level. When the team looked at individuals’ personal reasons for doping, they found that decisions were likely to be made based on how much guilt a person was expecting to feel. For example, some felt it was acceptable because other athletes also dope.
“The results indicate how strongly moral factors are related to doping behaviour,” says Anne-Marie Elbe. “The aim of a new research project at Leipzig University is to develop educational materials for doping prevention at elite sports schools which focus on strengthening young athletes’ ethical decision-making skills rather than teaching them about the negative side effects of doping.” The three-year project is funded by the Federal Institute of Sport Science.
Kavussanu, M., Yukhymenko, M., Elbe, A. M., & Hatzigeorgiadis, A. (2019). ‘Integrating Moral and Achievement Variables to Predict Doping Likelihood in Football: A Cross-Cultural Investigation.’ Psychology of Sport and Exercise. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.04.008