Despite decades of strict testing regimes, sanctions, and high-profile bans, doping remains one of the most persistent problems in modern sport. From elite competitions to grassroots clubs, the temptation to use performance-enhancing substances continues to undermine athlete health, fair play, and public trust. While anti-doping agencies have traditionally focused on detection and punishment, a growing body of research suggests that prevention may depend less on laboratories and more on the human mind.
New research led by Maria Kavussanu of the University of Birmingham found that psychological education can play a decisive role in reducing athletes’ likelihood of doping. Published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, the study shows that well-designed psychological interventions are just as effective as traditional information-based anti-doping education and that their effects persist over time. Crucially, the research also demonstrates that these findings hold across national and cultural contexts, addressing long-standing concerns about reproducibility in sport psychology.
The article, titled “A psychological intervention reduces doping likelihood in Italian athletes: A replication and extension”, adds important weight to the argument that anti-doping education must target how athletes think, feel, and regulate their behaviour, not just what they know.
Why doping prevention still falls short
Doping is not a marginal issue in sport. Studies estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of elite athletes may engage in doping, with even higher rates reported in recreational sport. Despite major investment in testing technologies and surveillance systems, prevalence remains stubbornly high. This has prompted researchers and policymakers to question whether current prevention strategies are addressing the real drivers of doping behavior.
Many anti-doping programmes rely heavily on information provision. Athletes are educated about banned substances, testing procedures, health risks, and the consequences of sanctions. While this knowledge is essential, evidence suggests that information alone does not consistently translate into behaviour change. Athletes may fully understand the rules and risks yet still decide to dope under pressure to perform, recover from injury or meet external expectations.
Psychological research has consistently demonstrated that doping decisions are influenced by moral reasoning, emotional responses, and self-regulatory processes. Factors such as anticipated guilt, moral disengagement and confidence in resisting temptation are strongly associated with doping likelihood. Yet until recently, few anti-doping interventions have been grounded in psychological theory or evaluated rigorously over time.
Testing psychology against education
The study by Maria Kavussanu and her colleagues set out to address these gaps. Building on earlier work conducted in the United Kingdom and Greece, the researchers aimed to test whether a theory-driven psychological intervention would be effective in a new national context. Italy was chosen not only because of its strong sporting culture but also because replication across countries is rare in doping prevention research.
The research was conducted in collaboration with academics from the University of Padova, Sapienza University of Rome, the University of Oxford, and other European institutions. It involved young Italian athletes from multiple sports, including rugby, football, basketball, and gymnastics.
Participants were drawn from 46 sports clubs and screened to identify those at greater risk of doping. Eligible clubs were then assigned to one of three groups. One group received a psychological intervention grounded in social cognitive theory. A second group received a standard educational intervention, similar to those delivered by national anti-doping organizations. A third group served as a no-intervention control.
Both interventions consisted of six one-hour sessions, delivered over a period of six weeks. They were interactive, discussion-based, and facilitated by trained professionals. Athletes completed validated measures of doping likelihood, anticipated guilt, moral disengagement, and self-regulatory efficacy before the intervention, immediately afterwards, and again two months later.
Understanding the psychology of doping
At the heart of the psychological intervention was social cognitive theory, originally developed by Albert Bandura. This framework views individuals as active agents who regulate their behaviour through moral standards, emotional responses, and self-monitoring. When people anticipate negative emotions such as guilt or shame, they are less likely to engage in behaviours that violate their moral values.
One key concept examined in the study was moral disengagement. This refers to the cognitive strategies people use to justify unethical behaviour and reduce feelings of guilt. In the context of doping, athletes may tell themselves that everyone else is doing it, that they were pressured by others, or that no one is really harmed. High levels of moral disengagement are consistently linked to greater doping likelihood.
Another important variable was anticipated guilt, the extent to which athletes expect to feel remorse if they were to use banned substances. Research shows that anticipated guilt acts as a psychological barrier to doping. Self-regulatory efficacy, or confidence in one’s ability to resist temptation and peer pressure, also plays a protective role.
The psychological intervention explicitly targeted these processes. Athletes were encouraged to reflect on their values, examine common justifications for doping, consider the emotional consequences of cheating, and learn from role models who achieved success without doping. By contrast, the educational intervention focused on rules, testing, health risks, supplements, and whistleblowing, without explicitly addressing psychological mechanisms.
What the study found
Both the psychological and educational interventions resulted in significant reductions in doping likelihood from before to after the programme. Importantly, these reductions were still evident two months later. Athletes in the control group showed no meaningful change over time.
Anticipated guilt increased in both intervention groups, meaning athletes were more likely to expect negative emotions if they were to dope. Moral disengagement decreased, indicating that athletes were less inclined to justify or minimise doping behaviour. Self-regulatory efficacy also improved, suggesting greater confidence in resisting pressure to use banned substances.
Perhaps most notably, there were no significant differences between the psychological and educational interventions in their impact on doping likelihood. This finding replicates earlier research and suggests that when educational programme are delivered in an engaging and sustained manner, they may inadvertently influence psychological variables, even if they do not explicitly target them.
Why replication matters in sport psychology
One of the most significant contributions of this study is its focus on replication. In recent years, psychology has faced widespread concerns about the reproducibility of research findings across different samples and settings. Doping prevention research is no exception, with most interventions tested only once and in a single country.
By successfully replicating earlier findings in Italian athletes, the study strengthens confidence in the robustness of psychological approaches to doping prevention. It also suggests that key psychological mechanisms operate similarly across different European cultures, despite variations in sporting systems and social norms.
The inclusion of a no-intervention control group further enhances the credibility of the findings. Many previous evaluations of anti-doping education lacked such controls, making it difficult to determine whether observed changes were due to the intervention or simply the passage of time.
Implications for anti-doping policy and practice
The findings have clear implications for the future of anti-doping education. They suggest that programmes focused solely on providing information may be insufficient if they are short, passive or disconnected from athletes’ lived experiences. At the same time, they demonstrate that psychological interventions do not need to replace traditional education, but rather complement and enrich it.
Targeting moral disengagement, anticipated guilt, and self-regulatory efficacy offers a promising pathway to sustained behaviour change. These variables are measurable, theoretically grounded and closely linked to doping decisions. Incorporating them into education programmes could help athletes navigate real-world pressures more effectively.
The study also underscores the importance of programme design. Both interventions lasted six weeks and involved active participation, storytelling and discussion. This stands in contrast to one-off lectures or online modules that may raise awareness but fail to leave a lasting imprint.
Reference
Kavussanu, M., Rubaltelli, E., Leo, I., Hurst, P., Giovannoni, M., Barkoukis, V., Lucidi, F., D’Ambrogio, S., & Ring, C. (2025). A psychological intervention reduces doping likelihood in Italian athletes: A replication and extension. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 77, 102761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102761
