Making decisions about condoms: Whose attitude is it anyway?

Policy capturing was used to assess the relative influence of one’s own attitudes and those of a sexual partner on decisions about condoms. Participants read vignettes describing a romantic encounter between themselves and a hypothetical date. Each vignette contained 6 independent variables; 3 described aspects of the participant’s attitudes toward condoms, and 3 described the corresponding attitudes of the date. For each scenario, participants judged the likelihood that they would use a condom should they have intercourse. The decision was independently affected by the attitudes of both participant and date. A second experiment showed the date’s influence increasing with time constraints. The results suggest that efforts to increase condom use may require heightened awareness of the influence of the other’s attitude on decision-making.