Examining a negative halo effect to anabolic steroids users through perceived achievement goals, sportspersonship orientations, and aggressive tendencies

Abstract

We investigated the social image of anabolic steroids (AS) users grounding our analysis on the achievement goal theory of Nicholls. Our main goal was to explore how an athlete's acceptance of AS use would impact on the way that athlete will be perceived by others. Non-AS-using participants reacted to one of two scenarios portraying a male athlete either accepting or refusing to engage in drug use behavior. The results suggested that the acceptance of anabolic steroids yielded an unfavorable social image--perceivers inferred a predominant ego orientation to characterize the AS-user's motivation as well as weaker sportspersonship and a stronger proclivity for reactive aggression than instrumental aggression. Moreover, the analyses did not yield significant gender or interaction effects. Finally, those findings are commented in view of methodological shortcomings and of the perspectives that they may offer for future research concerning the motivational aspects of the social perceptions of drug use in sport.

Attitudes towards use of anabolic–androgenic steroids among Ghanaian high school students

“…Persons rated high on neuroticism have been found to have negative thoughts and feelings as well as various physical and psychological problems including substance use and dependence (Fridberg et al, 2001;Lahey, 2009). It can therefore be inferred that, apart from the enervating physical and psychological consequences previously discussed, perceptions of AAS use harms the social image or personality of the perceived user in line with findings from previous investigations (Chantal et al, 2009(Chantal et al, , 2013Long, 1991;Schwerin & Corcoran, 1992;Van Raalte et al, 1993). This finding is explainable by the negative attitude towards AAS use and use of other doping methods in Norway (Breivik, Hanstad, & Loland, 2009;Skretting, 1993) as well as the illegal status of AAS use in Norway (Pallesen et al, 2014).…”

“…Similarly, tertiary students perceived an AAS-using bodybuilder similarly to a cocaine user and more negatively than a non-using athlete (Schwerin & Corcoran, 1996;Van Raalte et al, 1993). In another experimental investigation using physical education students, Chantal et al (2009Chantal et al ( , 2013 found that an AAS user was perceived as egoistic. In the same study, participants perceived the AAS-using athlete negatively on aggression and sportspersonship.…”

“…If exposure to a group's member or symbol elicits a negative response, this is regarded as signifying prejudice (Brauer, Wasel, & Niedenthal, 2000). IPT has been applied in experimental studies of how AAS users are perceived (Chantal et al, 2009(Chantal et al, , 2013Schwerin & Corcoran, 1992Van Raalte et al, 1993), as previously elucidated in relation to the stigmatizing effects of AAS use.…”

Heterosexual women rate perceived anabolic steroid-using men as less attractive for long-term romantic relationships

“…Although no difference was observed in ratings of the physical and shortterm sexual attractiveness of the AAS-using and non-using targets, our sample of heterosexual women rated the AASusing target as less attractive for long-term romantic relationships. The latter finding, consistent with our hypothesis, is in line with previous results indicating the debilitating effect of observers' perceived AAS use on the construal of the personality and social image of AAS users (Chantal et al, 2013;Griffiths et al, 2016;Sagoe et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2015). The disapproval and illegalization of AAS use in Norway (Breivik et al, 2009;Pallesen et al, 2014) are plausible explanations for the present finding.…”

“…We therefore conducted an experimental study of how heterosexual women evaluate the physical, sexual and romantic attractiveness of AAS-using men. Observers negatively construe the personality and social image of perceived AAS users (Chantal et al, 2013(Chantal et al, , 2009Griffiths et al, 2016;Sagoe et al, 2016;Schwerin & Corcoran, 1992, 1996Van Raalte et al, 1993;Yu et al, 2015). Accordingly, we hypothesized that the perceived AASusing target will receive lower ratings on physical, shortterm sexual, and long-term romantic attractiveness compared to the non-using target.…”