There is evidence that people engage in "risky" (i.e., unprotected) sex with "safe" partners and in "safer" (i.e., condom protected) sex with "risky" partners. Moreover, people seem to "just know" whether a person is "safe" or "risky" by relying on formally irrelevant information such as clothing style. Such decisions may result in negative consequences such as the acquisition of HIV and other STDs. This two year research project investigates the processes by which people make judgments and search for information about the risk and attractiveness of potential romantic partners and examines how this information influences safer sex decisions. By integrating a cue-utilization approach with Differentiation-Consolidation theory, we investigate (a) which partner attributes (cues) are important for the decision to start an intimate relationship with a person; (b) the extent to which those cues are diagnostic of attractiveness and risk; (c) how combinations of cues effect partner judgments and intentions to engage in safer sex behaviors with those partners, and (d) how search strategies affect these judgments and intentions. In Study One a computer-based survey will be administered to 800 college students in order to identify important and diagnostic attributes for partner selection and judgments. In Study Two, 470 subjects will each be presented with 5 randomly generated partner profiles consisting of highly diagnostic attractiveness and risk cues. They then will make risk and attractiveness judgments and indicate their intentions to date and have unprotected sex with that partner. Study Three investigates how an initial decision about a partner influences the search for additional information about that partner. 342 subjects will be provided with preliminary information such that they initially select a partner who is in fact less attractive and more risky than a rejected candidate. Subjects will be provided with a format for information searches, which either facilitates or prevents a biased information search (oriented at confirming one's prior choice). The effects of information searches on risk and attractiveness judgments, and on decisions about future behavior with that partner are then estimated. These studies will contribute to the future development of interventions to help people make decisions about potential partners that will reduce their risk of acquiring HIV or other STDs.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter