FREE ESSAY ON SAFE SEX: A FUNCTION OF THE PERSON PERCEPTION PARADIGM

SAFE SEX: A FUNCTION OF THE PERSON PERCEPTION PARADIGM

Many theories and much research has been conducted on contraception in general, and more
recently on condoms in particular, as a result of the AIDS epidemic (Lear, 1995). Condom
usage and AIDS education are essential tools for reducing the impact of the disease, yet
fewer than one third of sexually active college students report consistent condom use
(Seal & Palmer-Seal, 1996). It seems that sexually active individuals rarely discuss
safer sex or ask about their partner's sexual activity before engaging in sexual activity
(Seal & Palmer-Seal, 1996). This raises some questions as to the origin of the avoidance
of safer sex discussion. It has been found that the interpersonal reactions of sexual
partners, rather than the less direct thoughts of AIDS risk, influence attitudes towards
condoms and condom usage (Casteneda & Collins, 1995). These personal interactions among
partners in a sexual relationship are a result of attitudes each partner carries about
sex, contraception and a sexual relationship itself. Attitudes can be ascertained by
means of person perception evaluations, which present the behaviors of a target person
(e.g., introducing a condom) and categorize the social meanings imposed on the actor
within the situation (Castenada & Collins, 1995). In order to accurately evaluate the
social meanings within a sexual relationship using a person perception paradigm, the
paradigm itself, as well as the communication patterns about the relationship and condom
usage must be assessed.
Person Perception Paradigm and This Study
The efficacy of the person perception paradigm for accurately gathering the social
meanings implied by certain actions has been proven in past research (Collins & Brief,
1995). It has been ascertained that target subject' s behaviors within a vignette are the
foundation for impressions the participants form about the social meanings of actions.
Collins and Brief have gone on to argue that the vignette methodology is better able to
collect the social meanings derived from actions than interview questions, because often
impressions that are formed about another's actions are not conscious attitude
formations. Behavior interpretation often occur through automatic and intuitive means
(Collins, 1997; lecture). While most research directly asks participants what they think,
person perception studies a more subtle means of gaining the participants reactions.
The current study used a person perception test to evaluate the attitudes of participants
about women in a sexual relationship when she either proposed a condom, or said nothing
about contraception, while expressing either concern or saying nothing about her
emotional state. There were four different possible types of situations that the male
observers could have been given: the "concerned" female who did not propose a condom, the
"concerned" female who said, "I have a condom with me," the female who said nothing and
did not propose a condom, and the female who said nothing about her emotional state, but
said she had a condom with her. These females were then evaluated by male observers on
various aspects of her perceived personality. Males rated the females on such items as,
if they were active or passive, if they were promiscuous or not, etc. No other research
has addressed a sexual situation where women talk about their feelings and present a
condom in a person perception paradigm. It will be interesting to see how the male
participants assess the situation.
This study used six different scales comprised of separate items in order to accurately
assess the perceptions the male observers held about the female targets. The scales were
a "Sexual attractiveness" scale, which determined how sexually attractive the woman was,
a "Responsibility" scale, which determined the extent to which the woman was responsible,
a "Takes Charge" scale, which assessed the male observer's ideas about how active the
women in the situations were and two other scales which assessed how "Nice" and
"Exciting" the woman was. It is hypothesized that there will be high correlations between
the separate items within each of these scales, which indicates that the items will be
measuring similar properties. But there will be low correlations between any two scales
and between any items and a separate scale, which will indicate that the scales were
measuring different attributes.
Past Research on the Person Perception Paradigm
Past research has found that people do make judgments based on the contraceptive choices
that target persons choose and the conditions they have made the choices under,
concerning abortion decisions (Allgeier, Allgeier & Rywick, 1979: as cited in McKinney et
al., 1987). It has also been found that contraceptive behavior is evaluated differently
by an outside observer that is exposed to a vignette depicting a sexual situation
involving issues of contraception, and personal attitudes of the target subject, such as
the one tested in this study (McKinney et al., 1987). Other studies have evaluated the
person perception design within partners involved in a sexual relationship (Lear, 1995),
and have found that people within relationships also rate their partners actions as
indicative of symbolic meanings, similar to results obtained from observers of sexual
relationship vignettes. This type of symbolic inference has been tested in the current
study. 
Impressions that people form of others are based on the others actions and language they
use within a social situation. In the current study, the participants are not told what
actions are taken by the target persons within the scenario concerning contraception use,
only the target woman's verbal discourse is disclosed (i.e. the participants don't know
if she did what she said, only what she said). Therefore it is important to evaluate
communication within a sexual relationship in order to accurately assess what the social
meanings of communication in a relationships are, and what attitudes others have about
this discourse is.
Communication Within The Sexual Relationship
Communication involves an assessment of shared ideas and beliefs - - what is and is not
agreed upon by the participants (Schlenker & Weigold, 1992). One's audience influences
the style and manner in which one communicates - - who one's partner is influences how
and what one says to that partner (Schlenker & Weigold, 1992). How these communication
tactics are manifested in an early sexual relationship is relevant to the current study
because of the content of its scenario. It seems that within early sexual relationships
ambiguity around sexual communication is the norm (Lear, 1995). Perhaps because the
situation is not very established or familiar, safer sex discussion usually consists of
general discussion about concerns not related to the particular relationship itself
(Cline et al., 1992: as cited in Seal & Palmer-Seal, 1996). Directness of approach on the
subject of subject of sex usually involves the male partner within a heterosexual
relationship more often than the female in early romantic situations (Lear, 1995). It
will be interesting to see how the male respondents rate a female who expresses concern
about the sexual situation, as compared to a female target who says nothing about her
emotional state. I hypothesize that the female who expresses concern will be seen as more
nice than the one who says nothing, but not very exciting. She will be seen as
responsible, but not that sexually attractive, and finally as taking charge in the
situation. Since sexual decision making is dependent on open communication within a
sexual relationship, which is not often found within the dating stages of young, college
age students (Lear, 1995), condom usage is often conducted under constrained choices and
may be hindered. This type of inhibited discourse that is typical of early sexual
relationships is reflected in this "concern" scenario of the experiment, and is
hypothesized to elicit mixed responses.
Attitudes Towards Condoms
Attitudes and self-perceptions about condom use can be approached in a behavioral way.
Are attitudes about condoms acted upon because of previous self-perceptions or do people
who use condoms adopt the attitudes that are associated with condom usage? An evaluation
of smoking sheds some light on this question. It seems that people begin to smoke because
it correlates to a pre-existing set of self-relevant beliefs (Chassin et al., 1981). If
this is also true of condom usage behaviors, then it follows that people who think
condoms and safer sex are a good idea will follow-through and use them, but that people
who do not have positive attitudes towards condoms are not likely to gain them through
usage of condoms. The idea of attitudes affecting behaviors relates to this study,
because what is being assessed is the attitudes men have about female target's sexual
behavior. The men will see the woman who introduces a condom as having attitudes that are
sympathetic to condom usage. What exactly these attitudes are will be investigated. 
Risk Perception
Attitudes towards condoms often depend on the perceived risk of contracting AIDS and
other sexually transmitted diseases as well a person's perceived self-efficacy in
proposing them (van der Pligt & Richard, 1994). For example, most sexually active
adolescents do not feel susceptible towards AIDS (van der Pligt & Richard, 1994) and
therefore do not use condoms in their social interactions. The factor of low perceived
risk is recurrent and pervasive across many sexually active groups (Lear, 1995). If the
sexually active individual does not perceive themselves as at risk for sexually
transmitted diseases, including AIDS, they are not very likely to use condoms to have
safer sex. 
If a person does see themselves as at risk for sexually transmitted diseases other's
perceptions of them may be different than the perception of someone who does not think
they are at risk. While it is true that every person who is sexually active has the
potential to contract a sexually transmitted disease, this is not often recognized by
sexually active youth (Lear, 1995). Since young people often do not recognize the
pervasiveness of the problem, they may judge people who are aware of their susceptibility
as more promiscuous or in a negative light as compared to those that do not discuss the
topic of safer sex (and presumably do not bring it up because they don't think they are
at risk, i.e., they do not engage in sexually risky behavior such as multiple partners).
In this study, the idea of perceived risk as presented by the female target ("I have a
condom with me") to the male observers may influence their perceptions of the women.
Specifically, women who say that they have a condom with them will be perceived as more
sexually appealing, more responsible, less nice, more exciting and more "takes charge"
than the woman who does not offer a condom. Thus, women who present condoms will be seen
as more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases, which incurs various impressions
about her personality - ones that are different from the impressions formed by a woman
who does not present a condom. The difference between the two perceptions that men make
about women who propose condoms may be for reasons other than their perceptions of "at
risk" individuals as well.
Sexual Double Standard
Another area that may affect how men perceive women who propose condoms as compared to
those that do not, may be a result of a double standard. A double standard allows men to
have more sexual freedom than women. A modern adaptation of the traditional idea of the
double standard is the idea of the conditional double standard (Reiss, 1967: as cited in
Sprecher & McKinney, 1993). This standard says that men can engage in any type of
premarital sex, but that women can only engage in sex if they are in a love relationship.
Since the current study presents a sexual encounter that is relatively new and does not
specify that it is a love relationship, observers will infer that it is not a love
relationship, but more of a recreational sexual encounter. The actions that the woman in
the situation exhibits may create a more negative view of her when she does not present a
condom, than when she does. For, although the woman in engaging in premarital sex in a
casual relationship, the woman who openly supplies a condom in this situation may be seen
as more comfortable with this type of situation than a woman who does not offer a condom
and therefore she will be evaluated as more sexual and less "nice." These results have
been found in another study which showed that women who carried condoms with them held a
stigma: they were associated with evaluations of worthlessness (Wight, 1992; as cited in
Lear, 1995). Having a condom indicates a lack of sexual innocence, which has been
perceived as unfeminine (Lear, 1995). Lear encompassed the broad effect condom usage has
on personal perceptions of the self and others who use condoms, when she observed that,
"condoms carry meanings that can differ for each sexual partner and over time, and these
meanings are illustrative of the gendered nature of responsibility and what is considered
appropriate behavior in contraception and safer sex" (p.1314). 
In summary, the purpose of this study is to assess what impressions are formed by male
participants about female targets who express concern and propose condoms in a sexual
situation. It is predicted that a female who expresses concern will be seen as more nice,
less exciting, more responsible, less sexually attractive, and more actively involved
than the female who says nothing. Another hypothesized result of the current study is
that a female who says she has a condom with her will be seen as less nice, more
exciting, more responsible, more sexually appealing, and more "takes charge" than the
woman who says nothing. Implicit in these prediction is the idea that the items within
these scales are correlated with one another, but that the scales themselves measure
separate attributes. 
RESULTS
Correlations
The correlation matrix (see Table 1) to be presented here includes dependent variable
groups labeled "Takes Charge," "Sexual Attractiveness," "Responsible," "Nice," and
"Exciting" scales. First the intra-scale correlations, then the between-scale
correlations, and finally the scale-item correlations of the "Nice" and "Exciting" scales
will be presented.
Within Scale (Item-Item) Correlations
The between item, intra-scale correlations for the "Takes Charge" scale (the blue
triangle in Table 1) were of moderate convergent validity, as shown by their moderate
correlation mean (r = .47). The dependent variables within this scale were the Active,
Brave, and Strong items, with relatively similar correlation values of .34, .57, and .49,
respectively. The second group of intra-scale correlations, within the "Sexual
Attractiveness" scale (the red triangle in Table 1), yielded a high convergent validity
(r = .51). The scale was composed of the following items: Good in Bed, Desirable Date,
Physically Attractive and Sexually Appealing. The range of these intra-scale correlations
was dispersed between r = .32 and r = .72. The Responsible scale was composed of four
items (Responsible, Conscientious, Reliable, and Dependable) that suggest high convergent
validity, as evidence by the high correlation mean (r = .57) (as seen in the green
triangle in Table 1). The specific correlation values for the dependent variables were
dispersed evenly between r = .67 and r = .49.
Table 1: Correlation Matrix of the dependent variables in the "Takes Charge," "Sexual
Attractiveness," "Responsible," "Nice" and "Exciting" Scales
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
"Takes Charge"
1. Active 1
2. Brave .34 1
3. Strong .57 .49 1
"Sexual Attractiveness"
4. Good in Bed .29 .37 .35 1
5. Desirable Date .03 .24 .22 .32 1
6. Physically .16 .32 .32 .51 .36 1
Attractive
7. Sexually .25 .37 .40 .67 .48 .72 1 
Appealing 
"Responsible"
8. Responsible .04 .21 .20 .01 .33 .10 .07 1
9. Conscientious .01 .27 .20 .01 .34 .16 .12 .61 1
10. Reliable -.06 .19 .15 -.13 .32 .03 .08 .50 .56 1
11. Dependable -.05 .15 .16 -.00 .32 .10 .08 .58 .49 .67 1
"Nice"
12. All dependent .00 .28 .30 .14 .53 .25 .31 .59 .57 .70 .70 1 
variables within
this scale
"Exciting"
13. All dependent .39 .45 .40 .62 .29 .42 .60 -.08 -.14 -.16 -.10 .06 1 
variables within
this scale
Between Scale (Item-Item) Correlations
The between-scale, inter-item correlations were assessed for the "Takes Charge," "Sexual
Attractiveness" and "Responsible" scales. A comparison of the "Takes Charge" and "Sexual
Attractiveness" scales (shown within the large yellow rectangle in Table 1) revealed a
mean correlation for the between-scale items as r = .28: correlation values ranged from r
= .03 to r =.40. Although the scale had two outliers (r = .03 and r = .40), the two
extreme values nullified each other's significance in the final computation of the mean
correlation value. Thus, the average of the between-item correlations can be described as
having a moderately high discriminate validity (difference between scale items). The
second between-item correlation rectangle (the large pink rectangle in Table 1) shows the
correlations between the "Takes Charge" items and the "Responsible" scale items. The mean
correlation value was r = .12, with a range of r = .27 to r = -.06, indicating that the
two scales were not correlated: their correlation values indicate high discriminate
validity between the two scales. The third between-scale correlations, which assess the
similarities between the "Sexually Attractive" and "Responsible" scales, are found within
the large blue rectangle on Table 1. The items of these scales also had a low correlation
(r = .12) with a range of r = .34 to r = -.06. The Physically Attractive dependent
variable had a higher correlation (r = .33) to the "Responsible" scale items than the
rest of the "Sexual Attractiveness" dependent variables. Although this higher correlation
raised the mean between-scale correlation value, the scale still provide evidence for
high discriminate validity.
Between Scale (Item-Scale) Correlations
The scale-item correlations compared the "Nice" scale to the other scale's items. The
"Takes Charge" items' correlation values provided evidence for a high discriminate
validity compared to the "Nice" scale (r = .19) (as seen in the small red rectangle on
Table 1). The scale-item scores for Active, Brave and Strong were r = .00, r = .28, and r
= .30, respectively. The scale-item correlations between the "Sexual Attractiveness"
scale and the "Nice" scale (seen in the small yellow rectangle in Table 1) were slightly
higher, but still held moderate discriminate validity (r = .31), with a range of r = .14
to r = .53. The "Responsible" scale's dependent variables had the highest correlation to
the "Nice" scale (r = .64), the correlations between the "Responsible" items and the
"Nice" scale suggested a low discriminate validity (as seen in the small pink rectangle
in Table 1).
The high correlation values of the item to scale analyses between the "Exciting" scale
and the "Takes Charge" and "Sexual Attractiveness" items provided evidence for a low
discriminate validity between these items and the "Exciting" scale. The specific
correlations between the "Takes Charge" scale items and the "Exciting" scale were .39
(Active), .45 (Brave), .40 (Strong), resulting in a mean of r = .41 (in the small green
rectangle on Table 1). The correlations among the items within the "Sexual
Attractiveness" scale (as seen in the small orange rectangle in Table 1) provided
evidence for an even lower discriminate validity when paired to the "Exciting" scale (r =
.48). Upon comparrison of the scale-item correlations of the "Takes Charge" and the
"Sexual Attractiveness" items to the "Nice" scale (r = .19 and r = .31, repectively), to
the correlations of the "Takes Charge" and "Sexual Attractiveness" items to the
"Exciting" scale (r = .41 and r = .48, repectively), it can be seen that the "Nice" scale
was less similar to these items than the "Exciting" scale (the values for the "Nice"
scale suggest lower discriminate validity). 
The correlations between the "Responsible" scale items and the "Nice" scale were of lower
discriminate validity (r = .64) than the correlations between the "Responsible" items and
the "Exciting" scale (r = -.12). The low correlations among the "Responsible" scale's
dependent variables and the "Exciting" scale indicate high discriminate validity (as seen
in the small blue rectangle in Table 1). The between-scale correlation value for the
"Nice" and "Exciting" scale had a low mean (r = .06), and therefore suggested a high
discriminate validity as well (as seen in the small red square on Table 1).
Analyses of Variance
The independent variables of condom proposal (either nothing was said or the female
target said, "I have a condom with me") and context sentence (either nothing was said or
the female target said, "I have been concerned") were analyzed on the responses male
participants gave on the five scales of "Takes Charge," "Sexual Attractiveness,"
"Responsible," "Nice," and "Exciting" in this between-subjects design.
The "Takes Charge" scale showed significant main effects of condom proposal. Female
targets were seen as significantly more "Takes Charge" when they proposed a condom (M =
5.29) than when they did not (M = 4.52), F(1, 60) = 10.12, p = .002 (see Table 2).
However, The context sentence used did not seem to alter observers responses, because a
main effect was not statistically evident (as seen in Table 2). Similarly, no
interactions were found between the two independent variables for this scale.
Table 2: Mean Ratings of "Takes Charge" as a Function of Condom Proposal and Context
Sentence
Context Sentence 
NOTHING CONCERN 
Condom NOTHING 4.63 4.4 4.52
Proposal WITH ME 5.27 5.31 5.29
4.94 4.87 
A significant main effect for context sentence was found for the "Sexual Attractiveness"
scale. The participants rated the target as more "Sexually Attractive" (see Table 3) when
they said nothing (M= 5.36) than when they said that they said that they were "concerned"
(M = 4.89), F(1, 60) = 7.85, p = .006. Unlike the previous scales, the rating of "Sexual
Attractiveness" did not differ in regards to the condom proposal variable (see Table 3).
The variables of condom proposal and context sentences did not show any significant
interactions amongst them. 
Table 3: Mean Ratings of "Sexual Attractiveness" as a Function of Condom Proposal and
Context Sentence 
Context Sentence 
NOTHING CONCERN 
Condom NOTHING 5.42 4.91 5.13
Proposal WITH ME 5.29 4.87 5.04
5.36 4.89 
As seen in Table 4, the target was perceived as significantly more "Responsible" when she
professed that she was "concerned" (M = 5.46) than when she said nothing (M = 4.83), F(1,
16) = 60, p = .001. Although the averages for condom proposal differed, there were no
statistical differences between proposing a condom or saying nothing for the rating of
"Responsibility." As in the other scales' statistical analysis, there were no
interactions found for this scale.
Table 4: Means for "Responsible" Ratings as a Function of Condom Proposal and Context
Sentence 
Context Sentence 
NOTHING CONCERN 
Condom NOTHING 4.88 5.37 5.17
Proposal WITH ME 4.79 5.55 5.24
4.83 5.46 
The target was assessed as significantly more "Nice" (see Table 5) when she expressed
"concern" (M = 5.34) than when she said nothing (M = 5.07), F(1, 60) = 3.82, p = .052.
She was also seen as statistically more "Nice" when she proposed a condom with her (M =
5.24) than when she said nothing (M = 5.17), F(1,60) = 2.70, p = .102. There was a
significant interaction found among the independent variables F(1,60) = 7.06, p = .009.
Women who said nothing were considered more "Nice" when they did not propose a condom (M
= 4.88) than when they did (M = 4.79). But when the female target said she was concerned,
the participants rated her differently. The observers saw the target as less "Nice" when
she said nothing (M =5.37) than when she said she had a condom with her (M = 5.55).
Table 5: Mean Ratings For The "Nice" Scale as a Function of Condom Proposal and Context
Sentence
Context Sentence 
NOTHING CONCERN 
Condom NOTHING 4.88 5.37 5.17
Proposal WITH ME 4.79 5.55 5.24
4.83 5.46 
Main effects for the "Exciting" scale (see Table 6) were found for both independent
variables as well. The female target was seen as more "Exciting" when she did not propose
a condom (M = 4.47) than when she expressed that she had a condom with her (M = 4.80),
F(1, 60) = 5.59, p = .019. The female target was also seen as more "Exciting" when she
said nothing (M = 4.98) than when she said she was "concerned" (M = 4.40), F(1, 60) =
17.35, p = .001. Significant interactions were not rendered within this scale.
Table 6: Mean Ratings For The "Exciting" scale as a Function of Condom Proposal and
Context Sentence
Context Sentence 
NOTHING CONCERN 
Condom NOTHING 5.39 5.3 5.34
Proposal WITH ME 4.72 5.37 5.12
5.07 5.34 
DISCUSSION
This study was conducted to ascertain what types of perceptions people acquire towards
other's actions within a sexual situation. Specifically, what male observers thought of
women's actions in a sexual situation. Different scales were formed to assess the
observer's perceptions of the targets actions within this situation. The women who said
they were concerned about the situation were perceived differently than the women who
said nothing about the situation. Similarly, women who proposed a condom (that she
brought) was evaluated differently than the woman who did not propose a condom.
Correlation Hypotheses
Before the dependent variables could be used as gauges of different and distinct
evaluations of the targets by the observers, it had to be ascertained that when they were
grouped into larger scales the scales were indicative of certain evaluations (i.e. the
Active, Brave and Strong dependent variables grouped all reflected an evaluation of
"Takes Charge"). This was done by running some statistical analysis on the various
descriptive terms to assess first, if they were similar enough to each other to validate
their being grouped together into one scale and secondly, whether they were different
enough from each other between the items and the scales and also between any two scales,
to be considered different scales. As seen in Table 1, the similarities within scale's
items and the differentiations between scales were achieved. Since the "Nice" and
"Exciting" items are inherent aspects of all evaluations, one of these scales was always
slightly associated with items within the other scales, a phenomenon that has been found
within most person perception evaluations (Casteneda & Collins, 1995; Collins & Brief,
1995; Mc Kinney et al., 1987; Chassin et al., 1981). 
Context Sentence: I am Concerned Vs. Nothing
As hypothesized, the woman who vocalized her feelings ("I am concerned") was perceived as
different from the woman who said nothing on four of the five measurement scales. As seen
in Tables 3, 4, 5, & 6, women who were "concerned" were rated by observers as less
sexually attractive, more responsible, more nice and less exciting as compared to the
woman who said nothing. These results are similar to rationale given to results of other
studies on sexual communication. That is, emotional reactions to a sexual situation have
been hypothesized based on other tested sexual communications, but have never been
directly tested in a person perception paradigm (Lear, 1995; Castenada & Collins, 1995).
However, on the scale that measured the female target's initiative ("Takes Charge" scale)
there was no perceived difference recorded by the observers between the context sentence.
Originally it was hypothesized that the woman who expressed concern would be more bold
than the woman who said nothing, simply because she voiced an opinion. Since the results
did not corroborate this hypothesis, something in the theorizing must have been
incorrect. Perhaps the problem with this reasoning was that it did not take into account
the meaning of the statement. Although the woman might have been "taking charge" by
voicing something she was not perceived as being especially brave or strong by saying "I
am concerned." Emotional pleas to contraceptive use have been hypothesized as less likely
to elicit perceptions of competence than other means in other studies as well (Lear,
1995). It would be interesting to pursue the use of different types of emotional pleas in
future research. Perhaps context sentences including, "I am concerned," as well as other
sentences such as, "I'm anxious," and "I feel weird about this," and "I'm uncomfortable"
could be used in future studies on other's perceptions of how emotional feelings affect
different personality measures. 
Condom Proposal: "With Me" Vs. Nothing
It was hypothesized that a woman who claimed to have a condom with her would be more
"Takes Charge," more "Sexually Attractive," more "Responsible," less "Nice," and more
"Exciting" than the woman who said nothing about a condom. However only some of these
hypotheses were confirmed by statistical analysis of the results (as seen in Tables 2-6).
Respondents did rate women who proposed a condom as more active and initiative than the
woman who said nothing. This result corroborates other studies that view condom proposal
as indicative of self efficacy (van der Pligt & Richard, 1994; Bengel et al., 1996).
Previous studies have also predicted and found that assertiveness is correlated with
condom usage (Bengel et al., 1996). The respondents also rated the condom proposer as
less "Nice" than the woman who did not propose a condom, as hypothesized. An interaction
was found in the way the participants rated the likability of the target. She was seen as
less nice when she proposed a condom and said nothing than when she just said nothing,
but she was rated most nice when she proposed a condom and expressed concern. This
difference in tone of the context a condom is proposed in can be observed in a previous
study. Women who introduced a condom with a theme of care and responsibility were seen as
more nice than a woman who introduced a condom and used a context sentence which focused
on the partner (without explicit care or responsibility themes) (Casteneda & Collins,
1995). The adjective "caring" can be correlated with the current study's use of the word
"concern." When a woman is perceived as caring, it's "nice" of her to introduce a condom,
but if she is just focused on the partner, or as in this study, says nothing, concern is
not sensed by the participant and he rates her as less nice. Thus, the seemingly
conflicting findings of the ratings of condom proposal and concern in this study are
probably the result of relationship type; in less caring or more casual sexual
relationships, women who propose condoms are less "Nice." Similar results have been found
when observers have evaluated the condom usage in other casual sexual relationships
(Lear, 1995). 
The other hypotheses were not confirmed. Women were not seen as more attractive when they
proposed a condom than when they did not. This may be because a woman who says nothing is
perceived as more mysterious and thus more sexual than a woman who says nothing. In a
similar study it was found that a condom proposal in a relationship elicited higher
ratings for "Sexual Attractiveness" for people who proposed a condom as compared to those
who didn't (Castenada & Collins, 1995). As in the consideration of the "Nice" results,
this difference may be because of the relationship type. That study also found that males
responded differently to this rating than did females, and also that the ethnicity of the
rater influenced their rating of "Sexual Attractiveness." Since it has been found that
sex and ethnicity influence ratings of attractiveness for condom proposal, future studies
using this paradigm should involve both sexes and different ethnicities in order to get a
more complete picture of the exact ways the perception of "Sexual Attractiveness" of an
individual differs across the population. 
Surprisingly, the woman who proposed a condom was not seen as more "Responsible" than the
woman who said nothing. This result seems counterintuitive to the inferences given to
safer sex behavior in sexual encounters. One explanation of this result can be postulated
based on the new expectancies associated with sexual behavior in the era of AIDS. This is
reflected by the responses within one study on safer sex practices, where respondents
explained their lack of discussion about safer sex was because safer sex was expected and
not an area where negotiation was needed (Bengel et al., 1996). Thus, those results can
be applied to the little differentiation found between condom proposal and no condom
proposal in this study. That is, perhaps women who did not explicitly propose a condom
were not seen as less responsible because it was assumed by the observers that a condom
would be used in a sexual situation such as the one depicted. In order to clarify the
exact thought process that the observers used to evaluate the accountability of the women
targets in the situation, future studies should include a third presentation. This
situation would depict a woman who did not propose a condom, while indicating that she
did not plan to use one. The observers might then be forced to evaluate the women who
propose or do not propose condoms differently.
The other hypothesis that was not confirmed by the statistical analysis was the
hypothesis that the woman who proposed a condom would be seen as more "Exciting" than the
woman who said nothing. It was reasoned that the woman would be seen as more exciting
because using a condom might lead observers to conclude that she was more sexually active
than saying nothing would have. Perhaps proposing a condom is less risky, and therefore
condom proposal is perceived as less exciting than saying nothing in this context.
Methodological Issues
This study had a few potential problems in the way that it was constructed. While it
provided a valuable look into how females are evaluated by males in a sexual situation,
the situation may have been slightly confusing to the participants because of a problem
with the ecological validity of the situation. For example, one of the possible scenarios
an observer could have been exposed to was a sexual scenario where the target woman says
"I am concerned" and who doesn't offer a condom. This manipulation lacks ecological
validity, because in the real world, if a woman said that her partner might respond by
saying "what are you concerned about" or something to that effect, thus getting at the
reason behind her concern. In this experiment, no other explanation is given to this
context sentence and observers are left to interpret this cryptic message for themselves.
It was used as part of the experiment to see how people react to just an emotional plea
and balance the manipulation of variables, but it is not at all realistic. Perhaps the
participants who were told to respond to this a scenario were confused and not able to
complete the person perception evaluation because of the confusion. Similarly,
participants who were given the scenario where the target said nothing about either her
emotional state or a condom might have wondered what they were supposed to be basing my
evaluation on to fill out the questionnaire. It may have been interesting to have each
respondent exposed to each scenario and use the nothing/nothing scenario as that
respondent's baseline - - measuring his other responses when they diverged from this
baseline. A within-subjects design is proposed for future research to compare
participants reactions to different scenarios.
Another methodological issue that was problematic in this study, that is apparent in many
studies which utilize rating scales, was that the respondents never varied much from the
middle of the scale. This showed that they did not rate the person as strongly one way or
another for any one scale. For example, on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = Active and 7 = Passive)
a respondent for any given scenario usually rated the target as a 4. Although there was
often enough variation to suggest statistical difference between ratings, the average
rating of 4 is right in the middle of the scale and this response is ambiguous. Perhaps
the respondent didn't think the target was either, or perhaps he didn't have any feeling
about this evaluation, so he chose neither, or perhaps he did not feel like answering the
questionnaire, so he only marks 4's. Any of these explanations may be correct, all with
the same outcome. There is not much variation from the middle for any of the scales,
which indicates that may be the scales need to be altered in order for more respondents
to practice more variation among their assessments. If they varied their scoring more,
the differences among the various scales would be larger and we could tell more clearly
where their perceptions lay. One possible alteration to the scale might be to use more
scales, without such dichotomous word choices, that were more specific to the situation.
For example, the Active/Passive scale might be broken into two scales, one which measures
Very Actively Involved to Actively Involved and then another scale which rated Somewhat
Actively Involved to Passive About Issues. In this way the experimenter might be able to
more accurately gather the respondent's true impressions of the target in a sexual
situation. 
Another problem that could be addressed in future studies is that the current study was
aimed at evaluating people's perceptions of sexual situation involving the use of
condoms, and yet there was no mention of the reason why condoms as opposed to other
methods of contraception was given. Since condoms are an important part of sexual disease
prevention this aspect of their use should have been one of the manipulations used.
Perhaps another factor could behave been added to the context sentence, about the
target's concern about AIDS or another sexually transmitted disease. A future study that
questioned participant's impressions of women who mentioned each type of sexually
transmitted disease that college age students are exposed to, might help in the
development of intervention strategies for combating the spread of these diseases. 
How This Study's Findings Relate to AIDS Intervention Programs
Although this study did not specifically mention AIDS in it's manipulations, the results
of participant's perceptions toward a target who introduced a condom is relevant to AIDS
intervention programs. As it has been emphasized, any sexually active person is capable
of carrying the disease - - indicating that a vast majority of the population is at risk
(Surgeon General). Because of the prevalence of people at risk and (as the current study
has found) the prevalence of different impressions about women who express concern or
propose a condom in a sexual situation, prevention models must be created to effectively
confront the disease. Personal perceptions of other's decisions are relevant to every
facet of the AIDS intervention process. AIDS must be addressed on the individual,
familial, local organizational, and communal levels to be effective (Flora & Thoresen,
1989), and all of these levels involve personal perceptions of the issue. Not only do
person's perception affect people on an individual level, people's perceptions of others
vary in response to the type of groups others are affiliated with as well. Intervention
programs must be sensitive to the multitude of influences which affect people's decisions
in order to be effective. As Flora & Thoresen have pointed out racial, ethnic,
socio-economic and gender status each contribute to the individual differences that must
be part of the intervention process (1989). Much more research is needed to find out the
exact ways that people perceive others who use condoms in order to better target
attitudes of the people involved in intervention programs, so that their attitudes
towards safer sex will be healthy ones.
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