Attitudes towards doping A comparison of elite athletes, performance oriented leisure athletes and the general population
Abstract The article reports findings on attitudes towards doping in Switzerland from various surveys aimed at the general population, elite athletes registered with the Swiss anti doping pool and performance oriented leisure athletes (POLAs) from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Even though the results suggest a broad consensus against doping and strong support for a general ban on doping in all three groups, athletes are even more critical of doping practices than the general population thus reflecting their proximity to the problem and their interest in clean sports. In addition, POLAs tend to be somewhat more critical than elite athletes thus lending support to psychological hypotheses stating that intrinsic motivations predominant in this group may increase one's enmity towards doping as opposed to extrinsic and strictly goal and performance oriented motivations that are supposed to be more widespread among elite athletes. Finally, a comparison with earlier population and elite athlete surveys shows that critical assessments of doping in elite sports and a preference for a complete ban of doping (as opposed to a partial or full liberalisation) have already been common in the 1990s and early 2000s but have further increased in the meantime. As a result, Switzerland's current strict anti doping strategy appears to be highly legitimate.