What Will People Think of You for Asking to Use a Condom?

Study looks at perceptions created by different condom negotiation strategies

How will people perceive you for asking to use a condom? Research shows it depends on how you ask.

In an article published in Sex Roles, researchers looked at how people respond to common condom negotiation strategies. In one study, they asked 150 undergraduate students to watch videos of three situations where a man or a woman suggested the use of a condom before an encounter. They were then asked for their opinions on how the partner viewed the proposer, as well as the likelihood that the couples went on to have sex with a condom after the conversation. Researchers found that participants believed the couples indeed did have sex and used a condom as requested, and that the partner who proposed to use one — whether it was a man or a woman — was more mature, and less romantic and promiscuous than the partner who did not.

In their second study, the authors asked 193 undergraduate students to read stories with three different condom negotiation strategies that a woman used before a sexual encounter. In one story, the woman refused to have sex without a condom altogether; in another story, the woman explained that she wanted to use a condom because she was concerned about sexually transmitted diseases; and in the third story, the woman told her partner that condom use would make the sexual encounter better and she would feel more sexy and less inhibited if they used one.

“This line of research has implications…on how to more effectively communicate with partners when the goal is to engage in safer sex practices.”

When the researchers asked this group of participants what they thought of the women in the stories, the female participants felt that the proposer who highlighted her sexual pleasure as a reason for using a condom was more exciting than the other two — and also more promiscuous, less nice, and less likely to be the marrying kind. However, study participants did feel that condom use was likely in all three scenarios, thus making all of the negotiation strategies viable.

“This line of research has implications for both basic research on gender roles…as well as applied research into the development of sexual risk reduction intervention content for men and women on how to more effectively communicate with partners when the goal is to engage in safer sex practices,” the researchers wrote in the study.

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Source:

Condom or no condom? It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127114026.htm