From needle phobia to doping phobia: Can the fear of injections help us understand anti-dopism?

Abstract

This commentary aims to explore a possible cause-effect relationship between two pervasive phenomena: needle phobia, an irrationally high fear of needles, syringes and injections and doping phobia, a visceral rejection and condemnation of performance-enhancing techniques and substances (PETS) and the athletes that use them. It is argued that the rise of anti-dopism (the ideology underpinning anti-doping) in the 1960s paralleled a transition from oral ingestion to injection as the preferred way of administering performance-enhancing substances. In popular culture and media representations, PETS have become ever more closely associated with injections, especially after the 1998 Tour de France. Given how widespread the phenomenon of needle phobia is among both the general population and the athletes themselves, this paper hypothesises that the negative feelings surrounding injections may have been (unconsciously) displaced to PETS usage and users. This may help explain why anti-dopism has achieved uncontested hegemony, despite its inconsistencies and essentially irrational nature. Nonetheless, further research is needed in order to substantiate this possible cause-effect relationship.