A study of surroundings influence on attitude towards and behaviour regarding doping among Ukrainian athletes and non-athletes

Summary
Moral attitudes are unlike other attitudes—they are strong and resistant to change (Sunstein, 2005); therefore, researchers see that furthering the moral and ethical facets of antidoping intervention (Elbe et al., 2012) may strengthen the effect of antidoping messages. However, the results are inconclusive. Such inconclusiveness regarding the influence of moral and ethical facets of doping on actual behavior leads us to assume that appraisal of information related to doping may be a subject of motivation to see this behavior as more or less permissible. The athletes may make their decisions being motivated by a vested interest to search for potential justifications of unethical acts and may not be motivated to question or critically assess arguments against the behavior itself. 

Therefore, this study aims to explore the basis for the following hypotheses:

A. Removing the motivation to rationalize doping behavior would reduce the behavior associated with doping.

B. The influence of the environment may implicitly activate the appraisal of doping-relevant information and affect participants' decisions to favor doping-associated behavior.

Methodology
Participants were 212 undergraduate university students currently involved in sport, aged 18-23 years. The variable of interest was whether participants adopted recommendations regarding the use of PEDs in their physical preparation program and, therefore, whether they were likely to engage in doping-associated behavior.

Results
The results of the study have shown that experimental manipulations produce an effect on doping behavior. Doping-associated behavior decreased significantly after manipulation in the experimental conditions served to remove the motivation to rationalize doping-associated actions. Furthermore, it was found that instigating the influence of the environment can activate the appraisal of specific doping-related information such that participants favor doping-associated behavior. However, preventing participants from viewing doping as a legitimate moral behavior can reduce the influence of the instigating environment up to two weeks after the intervention. Rationalizations of doping behavior can exploit maneuvers implicitly sanctioned in normative rules created by the social environment. However, the fewer opportunities there are for latitude in justifying immoral action, the more the moral attitude will act as a deterrent to doping.

Significance for Clean Sport

The present study represents one of the first attempts to evaluate the utility of motivated cognitions in doping behavior. Since an exposure to instigating factors may enhance adaptive patterns in motivated cognition to view doping as a norm, the findings call for an additional set of research aimed at understanding the influence of antidoping intervention from a moral standpoint. The results of the study may inform current antidoping interventions about the importance of addressing moral beliefs and attitudes towards the rationalization of doping behavior. The messages aimed at changing doping attitudes and beliefs should target preexisting misconceptions about doping and provide athletes with a possibility to question these beliefs.