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Perceptions of persona! risk from sexua! transmission of H!V 49
J'ai confiance en lui, en ce qu'il me dit. Peut-être qu'il ne me dit pas la
vérité, mais j'ai tout de même confiance que c'est la vérité.
The consequence was that women relied on trust rather than
condoms for self-protection.
Unlike women, men did not describe any difficulties in introducing
condoms into coital partnerships. Most men described using condoms
in virtually all new partnerships:
1 use condoms at first, until 1 get to know a girl, until 1 can trust her and
know something about her past.
Even when the partnership became a relationship and the female
partner was using oral contraception, if a man doubted his partner's
past, he used condoms. Thus, for men, in interviews as in surveys,
relationship status was not the key factor influencing their perception
of susceptibility, or their risk reducing actions, instead, the existence of
cues which alerted them to the possibility that their partner might be
infecte d, were the primary influences.
DISCUSSION
Survey and interview results suggested that both cues and
judgmental heuristics influenced risk perception, though somewhat
differently for men than for women. The results further suggested
ways in which judgmental heuristics could be integrated into the
Health Belief Model for a more comprehensive understanding of the
development of risk perception.
In the Health Belief Mode! risk perception is influenced by cues and
by a feedback effect from preventive action. The former was evident
in the analysis of survey responses in the influence of contact with
friends who had been tested for HIV and having had more than one
coital partner. This relationship held for both men and women.
Interviewees elaborated on the feedback from action to perception, in
their daims that the preventive actions they were taking (particularly
careful partner selection, a preference for relationship-based sex and,
primarily for men, a selective use of condoms) were providing them
with effective protection and that they were consequently at low risk
for infection. Judgmental heuristics operated in the interpretation of
cues and actions, with the interpreted cues and actions then
influencing risk perception. The representativeness heu ris tic made it
possible for young adults to believe they could select "safe", i.e. non­
infected, partners since it fostered the belief that only certain types of
people were likely to be infected and that one was less likely to