TElite athletes typically undergo arduous training that places their bodies under considerable strain, exacerbating the need for effective forms of recovery. As a result, athletes are prime targets for marketing rhetoric used in the sale of health and fitness products, many of which fall outside of the medical and scientific mainstream. Indeed, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), though bizarre and risky, is highly pervasive in sport. Some 50 to 80 per cent of athletes use alternative therapies compared with an estimated 40 per cent of the general public.
There are multifaceted reasons why athletes are drawn to alternative therapies. First and foremost, all humans are conditioned for the ‘quick fix’. We evolved to take mental shortcuts called heuristics that lead to rapid but imperfect solutions, and this seems to especially manifest when we make decisions regarding health and fitness. Proponents of some alternative therapies exploit this economy heuristic by offering grand rewards for comparatively little investment.
Marketing strategies exploit biases in human reasoning in order to sell products. Athletes are particularly susceptible because elite sport encourages a ‘win at all costs’ mentality. With all but the highest earners making modest salaries, athletes are under intense pressure to perform to secure prize money and sponsorship. When the difference between gold and silver can be infinitesimally small, it is perhaps understandable that athletes will often pursue any potential advantage they can, regardless of how alternative it might seem.
Second, placebo products of CAM can have powerful psychobiological effects. Some experts consider psychological advantages in sport to be more important than physical ones. When an athlete is tired and in pain, desperate to get back to training, scientific integrity may not be at the forefront of their minds. Most elite athletes (67 per cent), when surveyed, said they would happily engage in a placebo-mediated deception as long as it were effective at improving their performance.
By using strategies that merely seem scientific, athletes risk squandering time and resources on ineffective means of fast-tracking performance rather than focusing on more influential factors, such as training programmes, nutrition and rest/recovery.
1. In the context of the passage as a whole, which of the following is implied in the concluding sentence of the first paragraph (see bold text)?
(A) It emphasizes the gap in awareness and use of CAM therapies between general public and athletes due to preferential adoption of medical and scientific mainstream medicine by the former.
Not correct. It cannot be implied that the gap in percentage of people that use CAM therapy is because non-athletes or the general public show a preference for medical and scientific mainstream medicine. Since the general public is not the primary target, it is not led away from the use of mainstream medicine towards CAM therapy and therefore lags behind athletes who are the prime targets of CAM.
(B) It highlights the paradox that athletes, who are generally in an increased need for effective recovery, are more likely to invest in unproven interventions that offer nothing more than a placebo effect.
Correct. According to the context of the passage, elite athletes, given their ‘win at all costs’ mentality, are desperate to improve their performance and get back to training when tired or in pain. Thus, compared to the general public that do not need to put their bodies under considerable strain, athletes are more in need of effective recovery. However, these same athletes, in their desperation to recover or better their performance, fall for placebo effects of CAM therapy which are more psychological than physical, causing them to waste their time and resources on ineffective medicine.
(C) It informs about the need of reorientation of the marketing rhetoric used in the sale of health and fitness products towards the general public in order to shore up its adoption of CAM medicine therapy to a level at par with that among athletes.
Not correct. The difference in percentages is illustrative of the large share of CAM use among athletes thus, confirming, in a way, that the market rhetoric has been successful in getting athletes, their prime targets, to adopt CAM therapy. Since the prime targets are athletes for CAM therapy companies, they need not re-orient their marketing rhetoric.
(D) It is indicative of the tragic plight of the general public which remains deprived of quick and alternative ways of seeking therapy through the use of CAM.
Not correct. General pubic does not place their bodies “under considerable strain, exacerbating the need for effective forms of recovery.” Thus, their plight being tragic is not implied in the passage. The public is not deprived of the use of CAM as it is not a primary consumer of health and fitness products, as athletes are, and hence may not find much use of CAM therapy.
(E) It reveals how athletes are enticed more easily than the general public as CAM therapy adoption advantages athletes to take quick-fix shortcuts while playing elite sports to score a ‘win at all costs’
Not correct. Athletes are enticed but CAM therapy cannot advantage athletes to take shortcuts ‘while playing’
2. According to the author of the passage, the vulnerability of athletes to CAM is primarily because
(A) athletes are perpetually conscious of the way in which sporting successes influence their career trajectories and thus easily fall prey to seemingly promising therapies proffered by CAM
Correct. The vulnerability of athletes arises from their ‘win at all costs’ mentality. Refer the lines – “Marketing strategies exploit biases in human reasoning in order to sell products. Athletes are particularly susceptible because elite sport encourages a ‘win at all costs’ mentality.” The illustration of the difference in gold and silver further supports this.
(B) unlike the general public, athletes, due to their ‘win at all costs’ mentality, are occupationally conditioned for ‘quick fix’ solutions for making decisions regarding health and fitness
Not correct. According to the passage, “all humans are conditioned for the ‘quick fix’.” Thus, saying that the general public is not conditioned for ‘quick fix’ or economy heuristic would be incorrect.
(C) athletes, being less discriminatory in their reasoning, are indiscreet in their choice of therapies and are easily taken in by the grand rewards of CAM that come at a comparatively little investment
Not correct. Athletes are not less but more discriminatory or biased in their reasoning as they are on the lookout for remedies that can put them back in form and resume their training regimen as soon as they can. Refer the sentence – “When an athlete is tired and in pain, desperate to get back to training, scientific integrity may not be at the forefront of their minds.”
(D) a majority of elite athletes (67%) believe that a placebo mediated psychological deception leads to a definite improvement in performance compared to the physical effects brought about by mainstream medicine
Not correct. Athletes try out CAMs because they would in fact try anything and everything that promises to improve their performance, not that they have a greater belief in CAMs than mainstream medicine.
(E) being occupationally exposed to the risk and rigor of elite sports, athletes are naturally disposed to indulging in high risk-high reward propositions like those offered by CAM
Not correct. The passage does not attribute the vulnerability of athletes to their having developed an appetite for risk by virtue of their exposure to the risk and rigor of elite sports.
3. Which of the following statements best captures the attitude of the author towards athletes?
(A) The author is commendatory of athletes’ devotion to elite sports which is demonstrable by their desperation to be back in form or improve their performance on the field.
Not correct. It is more of securing their careers than devotion to sports that athletes take to CAMs. Refer the sentence – “With all but the highest earners making modest salaries, athletes are under intense pressure to perform to secure prize money and sponsorship.”
(B) The author is anguished at the lack of rationality of some athletes who typically choose risky treatments over proven mainstream therapy.
Not correct. It is true that “marketing strategies exploit biases in human reasoning in order to sell products. Athletes are particularly susceptible because elite sport encourages a ‘win at all costs’ mentality.” This does not mean that athletes are less rational, it only means that athletes being “desperate to get back to training, scientific integrity may not be at the forefront of their minds.”
(C) The author is critical of the manner in which some athletes consider that the ends justify the means, howsoever, unscientific or ineffective.
Correct. The passage calls complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), though bizarre and risky. At the same time, CAM is highly pervasive in sport. The concluding sentence of the passage is a condemnation of athletes who waste time and resources on CAMs to fast track their performance. The sentence – “When the difference between gold and silver can be infinitesimally small, it is perhaps understandable that athletes will often pursue any potential advantage they can, regardless of how alternative it might seem” supports the option that for athletes, the ends justify the means.
(D)The author is dismayed at the lack of discretion of athletes who by ignoring influential factors make their bodies vulnerable to pain and injury and are in dire need of quick fix solutions.
Not correct. The influential factors mentioned in the passage ‘training programs, nutrition and rest/recovery’ in the concluding sentence of the passage. Athletes make themselves vulnerable to pain and injury by undergoing arduous training that places their bodies under considerable strain. Their bodies do not get vulnerable to pain or injury by their ignoring training programs, nutrition and rest/recovery. These factors are influential in effecting a recovery from pain and injury.
(E) The author is sympathetic of athletes of elite sports as they are more vulnerable to the marketing rhetoric of health and fitness related products by virtue of their occupation.
Not correct. The attitude of author is not of sympathy. It is natural for athletes to be prone to injury and in need of quick recovery and so is their vulnerability to the marketing rhetoric of health and fitness related products. However, it is foolish on their part to “risk squandering time and resources on ineffective means of fast-tracking performance”.
