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Performance Drugs And Steroids

Decent Essays
Performance drugs have cast a shadow on many an esteemed athlete’s career. These drugs, a rotten fruit of progress, have been leaving their mark on athletic history since at least the 1960’s, when many acknowledged it as a problem. Performance drugs not only completely ruin the spirit of fair competition by giving athletes with the money to access them an easy way up, but they also can have serious health effects, and aren’t regulated as steroids, meaning they can have adverse side effects when taken in an unintended manner. Not only that, but failing a steroid test irreparably damages an athlete’s career, and often leads to them being stripped of all their medals, even if some of those were won without steroids. In 1981, after American discus…show more content…
These findings could help lawmakers and leagues respond to doping scandals, and help athletes polish their personal brand.To do this, the researchers had the surveyees read a section on Joe, an amateur weightlifter that was considering using steroids for the first time. In some of the sections distributed, Joe could gain a clear advantage by using steroids, and in others it wouldn’t make as much of a difference. Afterwards, the surveyees would rate how “wrong” it was for Joe to use steroids on a scale of 1-9, with 9 being “extremely wrong”. It turned out that the vast majority ofpeople thought it was very immoral regardless of the scenario, with an average rating of 8, buttheir ratings went even higher in the scenarios where Joe gained an advantage through steroid use. This shows both a wide public hate of performance enhancing drugs, but also an even stronger hate for performance enhancing drugs creating an unfair advantage. The researchers the had a second group of surveyees consider one of 10 other scenarios, including whether Joe was acompetitive or recreational athlete, and whether the substance in question was illegal orprohibited by the rules, had health consequences, or affected the amount Joe had to work out. And, interestingly enough, these had little impact on how “wrong” taking the steroids wasperceived to be, except for the ones concerning whether or not the steroids were prohibited, and whether or not they were a health risk for the user. This led the researchers to conclude that while people respond to perceived violations of fairness, they respond more to laws andregulations and to health risks. This evidence could be useful to leagues or lawyers. By knowing what people hate, they can figure out how to frame things to gain the most sympathy, or take the most sympathy from their opponent. Ultimately, this article showcases the greatly negative public opinion of performance enhancing drugs. I think
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