Sexual Arousal and Implicit and Explicit Determinants of Condom Use Intentions

Kenny Wolfs*, Arjan E R Bos, Fraukje E F Mevissen, Gjalt-Jorn Y Peters, Jacques J D M van Lankveld

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Being sexually aroused may be an important risk factor contributing to sexual decision making. Dual-process cognitive models, such as the reflective-impulsive model of Strack and Deutsch (2004), could be used to explain the effect of sexual arousal on intentions to use a condom. In this study, we investigated whether explicit and implicit attitudes toward condom use can predict intentions to use a condom when participants are sexually aroused and not aroused. In a within-subjects experimental design, male participants (N = 27) watched both a neutral and an erotic movie clip in counterbalanced order. After each clip, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their intentions to use a condom and explicit condom attitudes, followed by a wanting Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 2003) and a liking IAT to assess their implicit attitudes to unsafe sex. In concordance with the reflective-impulsive model, we found that when participants were not sexually aroused, their intentions to use a condom were solely predicted by their explicit attitudes. However, when they were sexually aroused, intentions to use a condom were predicted by both explicit and implicit attitudes toward condom use.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-480
Number of pages12
JournalArchives of Sexual Behavior
Volume48
Issue number2
Early online date12 Jul 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Sexual risk
  • Sexual arousal
  • Attitudes
  • Implicit Association Test
  • Dual-process model
  • INCREASING NEUTRAL DISTRACTION
  • ALCOHOL-INTOXICATION
  • ASSOCIATION TEST
  • RISK-TAKING
  • BEHAVIORAL SKILLS
  • DECISION-MAKING
  • ATTITUDES
  • IMPACT
  • METAANALYSIS
  • PERCEPTION

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