Moral Identity and Attitudes towards Doping in Sport: Whether Perception of Fair Play Matters

Abstract

Research evidence suggests that athletes’ attitudes towards banned substances are among the strongest predictors of intention to use or actual practice of doping. Previous research has found that personal morality was negatively related to doping attitudes. However, less is known about the role of athletes’ perceptions of fair play on their attitudes towards doping. First, we examined whether moral identity was associated with athletes’ attitudes towards doping and whether their perceptions of fair play mediated this relationship. The second purpose was to determine whether these associations differed among non-athletes. Overall, 365 university students (49.9% males, 55.3% athletes) participated in this study (mean age 22.02, SD = 6.58). They completed questionnaires measuring the aforementioned variables. The results showed that athletes’ moral identity and endorsement of fair play were negatively associated with their attitudes towards doping. The mediation analyses showed that the effect of moral identity on attitudes towards doping was partially mediated by perceptions of fair play (indirect effect, β = −0.10, p < 0.05). Unlike student athletes, non-athletes’ moral identity negatively predicted attitudes towards doping only indirectly, via fair play perception (indirect effect, β = −0.08, p < 0.05). The study provides insights into how a person’s morality and perception of moral values in sport may act as factors related to doping in sport. The practical implications for the promotion of anti-doping attitudes for athletes and separately for student non-athletes were provided together with future research perspectives.

High-School Athletes’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions on Doping: The Cyprus Sport-School Study

“…Violation of fair play was also perceived as a significant problem by a large proportion of participants. This perception is relevant to the literature, as athletes' moral identity and their endorsement of fair play have been found to be negatively correlated with their attitudes towards doping [34]. This suggests that an individual's morality and perception of moral values in sports may play a role in shaping their attitudes and behaviors associated with doping in sports.…”

“…Ethos in sport and, in particular, the importance of morality and ethics in the decision of an athlete to use doping or not should be taken into account in the design of anti-doping programs [33]. Athletes' moral identity and their endorsement of fair play have been found to be negatively correlated with their attitudes towards doping [34], demonstrating that an individual's morality and perception of moral values in sports might serve as factors associated with doping in sports. In addition, key socializing agents and the surrounding environment have an important role to play in affecting athletes' decisions to use PESs or not.…”

Study of an Anti-Doping Education Program in Spanish Sports Sciences Students

“…As previously stated [ 7 ], morality has been shown to be one of the variables that best correlate with doping behavior, and therefore anti-doping education must develop a strong moral opposition among athletes and ASP to be effective. Previous research by Sukys et al [ 14 ] has also shown that the attitudes of athletes and the ASP towards doping are more positive compared to those of non-athletes. In this sense, students showed a high moral rejection of doping before taking the course (82.1%), but after the intervention, the number of students who did not justify doping under any circumstances increased substantially (96.3%) and remained higher 4 months later (91.3%).…”

“…In the case of sports, fair play is considered one of its core values, and therefore sportspeople who consider fair play to be morally important should be more likely to reject doping as an unfair practice. This has been the case with Lithuanian university athletes [ 14 ], British team sports athletes [ 8 ], and British, Danish, and Greek footballers [ 15 ].…”