Abstract
The use of performance enhancing drugs,
also known as doping, can represent a
serious threat to an athlete’s psychological
and physical health and contravenes the
spirit of sport. Scholars identified attitudes
towards doping as a crucial factor that
indirectly influences doping behaviors.
Further, prominent theoretical frameworks
that are designed to explain why athletes
dope state that personality traits shape
doping attitudes. To date, however,
scholars are yet to examine the
relationship between attitudes towards
doping and personality traits such as the
Dark Triad. The purpose of this study was
to explore the relationship between the
Dark Triad and doping attitudes amongst a
sample of competitive athletes. Two
hundred and eighty-five athletes
completed a measure of the Dark Triad
and attitudes towards doping.
Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and
narcissism all correlated positively with
attitudes towards doping.
Machiavellianism and psychopathy
explained 29% of the variance in attitudes
towards doping, whereas narcissism did
not independently contribute to the
variance in doping attitudes. These results
reveal that athletes who score highly on
the Dark Triad may be more likely to dope
and therefore might need targeted antidoping
education and long-term
monitoring to reduce their risk of taking
banned substances.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 113-116 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 112 |
Early online date | 18 Mar 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Machiavellianism
- Performance EnhancingDrugs
- Psychopathy
- Narcissism
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Personality traits and performance enhancing drugs: The Dark Triad and doping attitudes among competitive athletes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
-
Dr ANDREW LEVY
- Psychology - Reader in Psychology
- Health Research Institute
Person: Research institute member, Academic