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The Double‐Edged Sword of Providing Information About the Prevalence of Safer Sex 1
Author(s) -
Buunk Bram P.,
EIJNDEN Regina J. J. M.,
Siero Frans W.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00237.x
Subject(s) - safer , condom , safer sex , sword , psychology , social psychology , demography , population , medicine , family medicine , computer security , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , computer science , syphilis , sociology , operating system
A group of 267 college students participated in an experiment to determine the effect of communicating different percentages (i.e., 12%, 36%, 64%, 88%) of the prevalence of safer sex in the student population on condom‐use intention. A positive linear effect of prevalence information on condom‐use intention was demonstrated, although the information that 64% engaged in safer sex seemed most effective in changing condom‐use intention. This effect was independent of previous sexual behavior. Although prevalence information had a positive indirect effect on condom‐use intention as a result of a change in perceived social norms, it had a negative indirect effect because of perceived risk. That is, information indicating a high prevalence of safer sex lowered the perceived risk of AIDS and, as a result, the intention to use condoms.