Australia Seeks to Map Minds of Cheats

As reported here in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority is hiring consultants to carry out detailed research on the proportion of sportsmen and women who may be contemplating using prohibited substances or methods.

And the authority has signaled that the research could be used to establish personal characteristics linked to a greater likelihood of using banned drugs. In tender documents issued for the research, the authority indicates its interest in a "robust and reliable" method that could "identify individual athletes … who may be at risk of, or susceptible to, utilizing prohibited substances and prohibited methods".

Sports psychologists have suggested that athletes with assertive or risk-taking personality types or who display traits such as pessimism, impulsive behavior and low self-esteem are more likely to consider using banned substances. Athletes going through critical career transitions, such as moving to a new grade of competition or nearing the end of their careers, are also more disposed towards boosting their performance artificially.

WADA has identified characteristics of athletes vulnerable to drug-cheating.  Perhaps this research can add to the body of knowledge.

...the World Anti-Doping Agency had identified characteristics associated with drug use, including: athletes struggling to recover from injuries; athletes on the cusp of winning selection to a new level of competition; and those training with people who had been involved in distributing prohibited substances.

Wonder if the NFL would add more psychological tests to the venerable Wonderlic?  I would bet the NFLPA and the MLBPA would fight any sort of predictive psychological testing.

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