Steroids in Sports: Dominant Strategy

This is an article that relates using performance enhancing drugs (PED's) to create an edge over competing athletes to the prisoner's dilemma.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/08/71566

The article explains that it is in a player's best interest to use PED's to prevent competitors from being better than them. Choosing PED"s is the dominant strategy. Of course, the article ignores the factors of ethics and consequences of getting caught into the game. However there were times in sports where there were no rules or tests for PED's. I found this article the most applicable to baseball's past, but the sports industry in general faces this dilemma every day.

Hah, of course we posted our articles within a minute of each other about nearly the same topic. I am glad we came up with different articles. However, Like I discuss in my topic, I believe that while morals are a large part of the matrix, one must also consider the changing payoffs for each different player. Some players will be much more likely to use PED's than others. This is due to the fact that they need them to compete with the naturally talented players.

Also, what the article fails to address is the influence that players have on other players. Morals aside, if one player is caught on one team for using PED's, his teammates are most likely going to be more cautious about the PED usage since they have seen their teammate get caught for something they are doing or thinking about doing. In fact, this reaction can be viewed in a similar way to information cascades. Since word spreads around that somebody on the team got caught or your best friend was caught, somehow the issue becomes more real and you tell all your buddies to stop using PED's. There is clearly more than one concept from class at work here.

It might be interesting to look at a graph of the players, trainers, and agents to investigate if patterns arise regarding steroid use. For example, do players who employ the same agent as a player who uses steroids tend to also take steroids?

This article talks about a conference in which a panel voted on its acceptance of steroids in baseball.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18299098

Steroid use is a very risky action for a player to take. It may seem like a dominant strategy in which the only way to succeed at a high level is to use steroids. However, in reality, with increased testing today, the dominant strategy of having a good career is to avoid using banned substances. In this panel, only 18 percent of the panel voted that they would accept steroids in baseball. This is not even close to 50 percent, which means that on the average, people look down upon using steroids. If a player uses steroids, he may become a better hitter, but this will inevitably lead to getting caught. Once caught, the player will lose his reputation in baseball. Using steroids will not return positive results. Clearly, the dominant strategy that is a realistic one is to avoid the temptations and risks of steroids.