| Abstract ID |
| 20260019 |
| Category |
| Sports Medicine: Exercise Medicine |
| Preferable Presentation |
| Oral Presentation |
| Title |
| THE ROLE OF IMPLICIT ATTITUDES IN PREVENTING UNINTENTIONAL DOPING: EVIDENCE FROM A CROSS-SOCIETAL SPORT EXPERIMENT |
| Author |
|
| Presenter |
| Derwin k C chan |
| Abstract |
| Background: Unintentional doping refers to athletes inadvertently violate anti-doping code by The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and one of the main reasons is that athletes unintentionally consume banned performance-enhancing substances. Objectives: This study investigates how implicit doping attitudes predict athletes’ accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping across diverse societal contexts (Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Australia). Study Design & Methods: A cross-societal real-time experiment involved 681 athletes (Mage = 28.21, SD = 8.43; 47.1% female) from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Participants completed two tasks: a Brief Single-Category Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit doping attitudes, assessing automatic associations with doping-related stimuli, and a novel beverage sorting task to evaluate accuracy in identifying beverages containing banned substances. The study controlled for societal factors (e.g., cultural norms, doping regulations) using regression analyses. Data collection occurred in controlled settings, ensuring consistency across regions. The design leveraged real-time behavioral measures to capture implicit attitude, advancing beyond self-reported data common in doping research. Results: Regression analyses revealed a significant negative relationship (β = -.09, p < .05, R² = .03, 95% CI [-.15, -1.64]) between implicit doping attitudes and accuracy in the beverage sorting task. Athletes with more positive implicit attitudes toward doping were less accurate in identifying beverages containing banned substances, even after controlling for societal factors. This effect was consistent across Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and Australia, suggesting robustness despite cultural differences. The findings highlight implicit attitudes as a subtle yet critical barrier to unintentional doping avoidance, with small but meaningful effect sizes indicating practical significance in high-stakes sport contexts. Conclusion: Implicit doping attitudes significantly correlated to athletes’ accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping, with cross-societal consistency underscoring their universal impact. Sport psychologists and anti-doping agencies can leverage these insights to design interventions targeting unconscious biases, such as implicit bias training, to enhance vigilance. This study advances WADA’s mission by informing evidence-based education programs, fostering cleaner sport and protecting athletes globally. |