What's Wrong With Using Steroids?

Michael Scally MD

Doctor of Medicine
10+ Year Member
Landy JF, Walco DK, Bartels DM. What's Wrong With Using Steroids? Exploring Whether and Why People Oppose the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. J Pers Soc Psychol. http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/pspa0000089

The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) elicits widespread normative opposition, yet little research has investigated what underlies these judgments.

We examine this question comprehensively, across 13 studies.

We first test the hypothesis that opposition to PED use cannot be fully accounted for by considerations of fairness.

We then test the influence of 10 other potential drivers of opposition in an exploratory manner.

We find that health risks for the user and rules and laws prohibiting use of anabolic steroids reliably affect normative judgments.

Next, we test whether these patterns generalize to a different PED-cognitive-enhancement drugs.

Finally, we sketch a framework for understanding these results, borrowing from Social Domain Theory (e.g., Turiel, 1983).

We argue that PED use exemplifies a class of violations with properties of moral, conventional, and prudential offenses.

This research sheds light on a widespread, but understudied, normative judgment, and illustrates the utility of exploratory methods.


 

Attachments



Many sports fans are strongly opposed to the use of steroids by athletes, and there are numerous explanations for why, including concerns about health and safety, fairness, rules violations, and athletes' position as role models. But what considerations are most important to our perceptions of steroid use? Are there conditions under which steroids might be acceptable? A team of researchers from Chicago Booth evaluated how 10 different possible explanations for steroid opposition affect our feelings about performance-enhancing drugs.

What’s wrong with using steroids? Exploring whether and why people oppose the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Landy, Justin F. Walco, Daniel K. Bartels, Daniel M.


Citation

Landy, J. F., Walco, D. K., & Bartels, D. M. (2017). What’s wrong with using steroids? Exploring whether and why people oppose the use of performance enhancing drugs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 377-392.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000089

Abstract

The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) elicits widespread normative opposition, yet little research has investigated what underlies these judgments. We examine this question comprehensively, across 13 studies. We first test the hypothesis that opposition to PED use cannot be fully accounted for by considerations of fairness. We then test the influence of 10 other potential drivers of opposition in an exploratory manner. We find that health risks for the user and rules and laws prohibiting use of anabolic steroids reliably affect normative judgments. Next, we test whether these patterns generalize to a different PED—cognitive-enhancement drugs. Finally, we sketch a framework for understanding these results, borrowing from Social Domain Theory (e.g., Turiel, 1983). We argue that PED use exemplifies a class of violations with properties of moral, conventional, and prudential offenses. This research sheds light on a widespread, but understudied, normative judgment, and illustrates the utility of exploratory methods.
 
No wonder our Congress has gone with rather biased and uninformed studies in passing the laws (all but) banning AAS.

Big Pharma wants it all!
 
Back
Top