Whistleblowing against doping misconduct represents an effective deterrent of doping use in elite competitive sport. The present study assessed the effects of social cognitive variables on competitive athletes’ intentions to report doping misconduct. A second objective was to assess whether the effects of social norms on whistleblowing intentions were mediated by actor prototype evaluations and group identification and orientation. In total, 1,163 competitive athletes from Greece, Russia, and the United Kingdom completed a questionnaire on demographics, past behavior, social cognitive variables, and intentions toward whistleblowing. Regression analyses showed that whistleblowing intentions were associated with different social cognitive variables in each country. Multiple mediation modeling showed that attitudes and subjective norms were associated with whistleblowing intentions indirectly, via the effects of anticipated negative affect and group identification and orientation, respectively. The findings of this study are novel and have important implications about the social, cognitive, and normative processes underlying decision making toward reporting doping misconduct.

举报兴奋剂不当行为代表了对精英竞技运动中使用兴奋剂的有效威慑。本研究评估了社会认知变量对竞技运动员报告兴奋剂不当行为意图的影响。第二个目标是评估社会规范对举报意图的影响是否通过行为者原型评估以及群体识别和定位来调节。总共有 1,163 名来自希腊、俄罗斯和英国的竞技运动员完成了一份关于人口统计、过去行为、社会认知变量和举报意图的问卷。回归分析表明，举报意图与每个国家不同的社会认知变量相关。多重中介模型表明，态度和主观规范分别通过预期负面影响和群体认同和取向的影响与举报意图间接相关。这项研究的发现是新颖的，对报告兴奋剂不当行为的决策背后的社会、认知和规范过程具有重要意义。