Impact of sex education on medical students' projections of patients' attitudes.

Although previous studies have indicated that sex education courses in medical school improved students' sexual knowledge and personal sexual attitudes, response bias and lack of control groups led to erroneous interpretations of course effectiveness. Using a modified form of the Sex Knowledge and Attitude Test (SKAT), the sexual attitudes and knowledge of sophomores were tested before and after a medical school sex education course, with a group of senior students who had not had the course as a control group. The students were asked not only to give their own personal responses to the questions, but to project how they thought a "typical patient" might respond. A group of patients were also given the SKAT test. Postcourse sophomores responded much as the seniors did, and pre-and postcourse sophomores and seniors all erroneously perceived patients as highly conservative sexually. In reality, although patients were somewhat more conservative than students on several dimensions of the test, their conservativeness was neither as pervasive nor as profound as the students anticipated. Medical students' stereotypes of patients' sexual attitudes were also highly resistant to change.