Gaming for safer sex: improving explicit and implicit cognitions toward safer sex precautions in young people

This dissertation tested a serious game approach for increasing safer-sex behavior in young people while broadening the focus on barrier protection by adding the following two behaviors: asking about a new sex partner’s sexual health and refraining from risky sexual practices with a new sex partner. The results obtained were mixed and suggest that more gaming sessions than provided were needed to achieve a robust attitude change, and that targeting three behaviors in one game might have simply been too much. It seems that in a virtual environment - less is more.