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OK, this may seem really lateral, but bear with me. Here’s a solid study showing that an intensive education intervention in 9-10 year olds does not help prevent obesity & overweight: thelancet.com/journals/lanch… This made me think about anti-doping education, so here’s a short thread
“Education” is often held up as a powerful and effective tool for anti-doping, despite pretty thin evidence that it does anything. If I’m cynical, an over-reliance on education seems to often replace the obligation to test as the thought of most effective deterrent.
That Lancet study in children suggests that even a really focused campaign, that achieves good engagement, doesn’t change behavior, at least in that group. And OK, they’re 9-10 year olds, you could say they’re too young to be ‘consciously impacted’ by it.
But when I think of anti-doping education, and this is my opinion dressed up as hypothesis, I doubt whether an education intervention can counteract the weight of things driving doping. I’d be worried that they’re extremely ineffective, like preventing obesity was in that study
Part of the problem is education often focuses on possible harm & risk. But we know that people suck at making decisions when the outcomes of their decisions are delayed (see: junk food and obesity). Short term incentives trump the ‘long-game’, so “don’t take risks” lacks impact
And then the other major reason is that a choice to dope is not so much a knowledge decision but a belief one. Knowing X is wrong doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t do X, if you’re in a world where a) everyone does X and b) you also BELIEVE X is required.
So when I see these campaigns, often by national anti-doping agencies, I wonder who they’re actually for? Sometimes I wonder if they’re a mix of PR and self-validation for authorities - “Look, we’re doing something, while we catch 1% despite 35% doping”. But maybe that’s just me!
Addition: Some of you noted this, there *IS* an important area of anti-doping education that may be effective, and that’s the content around inadvertent doping, supplements etc. Much as I’d like to believe athletes know, reality is they don’t, so education may help prevent these
I see this as the low hanging fruit. And it’s important in a couple of ways. One is that these ‘stupid’ inadvertent cases blur the lines between what is actually doping and what isn’t, and what is actually “catchable” - it creates false perceptions of problems from both sides
It makes it too easy for authorities to say “Ah, look who we caught”, because they pop a kid who had an energy drink, high fives all round! I’d rather not have these cases at all, so by all means, educate. But don’t spend time & money on that stuff when real issues are downplayed
