Department of Psychology, University of Florida, 945 Center Dr., Gainesville, FL, 32603, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Arch Sex Behav. 2021 Aug;50(6):2717-2728. doi: 10.1007/s10508-020-01907-4. Epub 2021 Jan 22.
Sexual discounting is a growing area of research aimed at identifying factors that reduce people's reported willingness to have safe sex. One commonly reported reason for condom non-use is that a condom reduces sexual arousal. However, researchers have yet to isolate the specific role of sexual arousal using a sexual discounting framework. We extended past research by measuring how sexual arousal reduced people's willingness to have condom-protected sex ("sexual arousal discounting": SAD). College students (n = 379; 67.5% females) selected partners they most wanted and least wanted to have sex with and were randomized to one of two groups. In one group, participants rated their willingness to have sex with a condom if their own arousal decreased (from 100 to 10%) from condom use. The other group completed the same task except their partner's arousal decreased from condom use instead of their own. We observed a three-way interaction between arousal levels, most versus least desirable partners, and self versus partner groups. Participants' willingness to have condom-protected sex systematically reduced as a function of sexual arousal. This was observed more with the most (vs. least) desirable partner and in the self-arousal (vs. partner-arousal) group but only when the partner was their least desirable. Men (vs. women) displayed more arousal discounting but only with the most desirable partner. Finally, higher arousal discounting was associated with lower safe-sex self-efficacy and higher reported frequency of unprotected sex in the past 3 months. This study demonstrates how reduced sexual arousal from condom use can be measured as a factor influencing sexual risk-taking.
性折扣是一个日益发展的研究领域，旨在确定降低人们报告的安全性行为意愿的因素。人们报告不使用避孕套的一个常见原因是避孕套会降低性唤起。然而，研究人员尚未使用性折扣框架来孤立性唤起的具体作用。我们通过测量性唤起如何降低人们对使用避孕套进行安全性行为的意愿来扩展过去的研究（“性唤起折扣”：SAD）。大学生（n = 379；67.5%为女性）选择他们最想和最不想与之发生性关系的伴侣，并随机分为两组。在一组中，参与者评估了如果自己的性唤起因使用避孕套而从 100 降低到 10%（从 100 降低到 10%），他们是否愿意使用避孕套进行性行为。另一组则完成了相同的任务，只是他们的伴侣的性唤起因使用避孕套而不是他们自己的性唤起而降低。我们观察到了唤醒水平、最理想与最不理想的伴侣，以及自我与伴侣群体之间的三向交互作用。参与者使用避孕套进行安全性行为的意愿随着性唤起的降低而系统地降低。当伴侣是最不喜欢的伴侣时，这种情况更为明显，在自我唤起（而非伴侣唤起）组中也是如此，但只有在伴侣是最不喜欢的伴侣时才会如此。男性（而非女性）表现出更多的性唤起折扣，但仅在最理想的伴侣中如此。最后，更高的性唤起折扣与较低的安全性行为自我效能感以及过去 3 个月中更高的无保护性行为频率相关。这项研究表明，避孕套使用导致的性唤起降低如何被测量为影响性行为风险的一个因素。
