Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Competitive Advantage
22 December 2007 at 7:35 pm Peter G. Klein 7 comments
| Peter Klein |
Once again, performance-enhancing drugs are in the news. In a highly competitive environment some people will do anything to gain an advantage, despite the potential long-term health risks. How widespread is the problem, and what should be done about it?
No, not baseball. I’m taking about professors popping “smart pills” to improve their cognitive performance. Two Cambridge researchers report in Nature that colleagues studying brain disorders are themselves using drugs like Modafinil “to counteract the effects of jetlag, to enhance productivity or mental energy, or to deal with demanding and important intellectual challenge.”
Is this acceptable? “Should the life of the mind be chemically enhanced,” asks the Chronicle, “when, say, a professor needs to crank out a tenure-worthy paper?” Many of us consume massive quantities of caffeine already; perhaps Modafinil isn’t really all that different. Others see the practice akin to Ritalin abuse by college students. “It smells to me a lot like taking steroids for physical prowess,” says one critic.
My questions: If we discover that particular scholars are using these substances, should we put asterisks by their publications in reference lists? Should we deny them places in the academic Hall of Fame?
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Chihmao Hsieh | 23 December 2007 at 11:16 pm
I’ve been wanting to write a brilliant response to this post these last couple days, but I *still* can’t find those damn pills…
2.
Peter Klein | 23 December 2007 at 11:59 pm
Hey, what about absinthe, the sale of which has just become legal in the US? It worked wonders for Joyce and Hemingway. . . .
3.
REW | 24 December 2007 at 12:08 am
and here I’ve always thought that absinthe makes the heart grow fonder…
4.
michael webster | 24 December 2007 at 10:11 am
What on earth are people complaining about when they slam performance enhancing medicine?
The only serious question would be that we don’t know the tradeoffs involved taking the medicine.
But this is hardly an argument for banning the medicine, is it?
Bah Humbug, Mitchell.
5.
Americaneocon | 24 December 2007 at 11:54 pm
Forget the drugs…have a Merry Christmas!
6.
David Hoopes | 26 March 2008 at 12:57 pm
Don’t encourage anyone to write like Joyce please. Our work is obscure enough without our trying to pad it with subtle references to the past 2000 years of literature. A few more writers like Hemingway (simple sentences) would be most welcome. Very good REW. I would be happy for a pill that would make my work better. Somehow it seems unlikely. I’d say hopeless, but I have already taken my meds for depression.
7.
John Anderson | 1 April 2008 at 3:26 am
FYI – NIH and the EU are announcing a new crackdown on brain doping. See http://wabda.org