Athletes’ beliefs about whistleblowing doping misconduct from six European countries: A social cognitive perspective

Background: Doping in sports is a worldwide problem which affects the integrity of sports and can endanger the physical and psychological health of athletes. Whistleblowing represents a method for detecting doping offences that may otherwise have gone undetected, but our understanding of whistleblowing against doping offences is limited. The purpose of this paper was to identify whether personal and social psychological variables were associated with intentions to report doping in sport. Method: 1146 active athletes aged ≥15 years, regularly training and participating in competitions participated to the study. Athletes were informed about study aims and gave informed consent. The sample completed measures related to organizational support, protection and costs of whistleblowing behaviours, justice/legitimacy, personal responsibility, group identification, similarity/favourability, personal benefits, perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and intentions. Internal consistency across multi-item scales was good to excellent (ω range 0.78–.96). Data were analysed using structural equation modeling. Results: There were significant relationships between intentions and among perceived costs, benefits, personal factors, and organizational structures. The structural model fit was acceptable (CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.03) and showed that personal responsibility, group identification, and role-model favorability/similarity positively predicted perceived benefits, whereas organizational support/protection negatively predicted perceived costs. In turn, perceived benefits were associated with more positive attitudes and greater perceived behavioral control, which was the strongest direct predictor of whistleblowing intentions. Conclusions: The findings underscore the complex interplay between personal and organizational factors in shaping attitudes and perceived behavioral control toward whistleblowing, ultimately influencing intentions.