A Preliminary Examination of Perfectionistic Self-Presentation and Doping in Athletes

Perfectionism has been linked to doping in sport. However, research to date has focused on trait perfectionism, and has neglected other, possibly relevant aspects of perfectionism. One such aspect is perfectionistic self-presentation – the interpersonal expression of perfectionism. Therefore, the aim of the present research note was to provide a first exploratory examination of whether perfectionistic self-presentation is related to doping in sport. To do so, we recruited two samples of athletes (total N = 362) who responded to
measures of perfectionistic self-presentation (perfectionistic self-promotion, nondisplay of
imperfection, nondisclosure of imperfection), positive attitudes towards doping (Sample 1), and doping willingness (Sample 2). Results of bivariate correlational analyses, showed that nondisclosure of imperfection was positively correlated with positive attitudes towards
doping, and perfectionistic self-promotion and nondisplay of imperfection were positively correlated with doping willingness. When controlling for the overlap between perfectionistic self-presentation dimensions, in regression analyses, only nondisclosure of imperfection emerged as a positive predictor of positive attitudes towards doping (Sample 1). The findings provide tentative evidence that perfectionistic self-presentation may be associated with doping, at least at the bivariate level, and in doing so, highlights the need for future doping research to consider other aspects of perfectionism.