Condom Negotiation Study

At my day job, there has been some drama lately…not with me, of course. It seems one of the teams in our company has a lot of women in it and, well, you know how it can get when too many women are forced to work together in a small, confined office. Pettiness ensues. Just trust me on this one. So I wasn’t exactly surprised when I read a recent study on how women judge other women in the way they choose to bring up the issue of condoms with sexual partners.

According to the findings from this study, women and men do not tend to differentiate between the male or the female sex partner bringing up the issue of using a condom for sex. What does make a difference is how a woman goes about suggesting their partner use a condom for sex. The study found that women will judge another woman more harshly if she is more playful and erotic in suggesting her partner uses condoms. They will judge less harshly, in fact, if the woman simply decides not to have sex with a partner who does not choose to wear a condom. This study was conducted by Dr. Michelle Broaddus and her colleagues in the Medical College of Wisconsin. Their study was meant to determine the effects of reactions of condom negotiations and whether the sex of the negotiator made a difference.

In the US alone, there are close to 19 million new sexually transmitted infection cases reported each year. Approximately 50% of those new cases occur in the under 25 population. In order to practice safe sex, condoms are vital. Previous research points to condom negotiation and communication playing a key role in whether the couple chooses to use condoms during sexual activity. This study was split into two parts. In the first part of the study, the perception of women vs. men suggesting the use of condoms for sex was examined. In the second part of the study, the perception of women and their choices of how to negotiate the use of condoms and perceptions of those negotiations were researched.

In the first portion of the study, 150 college students were allowed to view one of several videos in which either the man or the woman suggested the couple use a condom or the couple never brought up the issue of condoms. Once the student participant viewed the video, they were questioned on how they felt the person who suggested the use of the condom was perceived by their partner. The participant was also asked if they felt the couple decided to have sex and whether or not they chose to use a condom. In this study, it was found that the person who suggested the use of a condom was seen as somebody who was not as romantic, yet more mature, than those persons who did not suggest the use of a condom. If the woman suggested a condom, the perception of her was that she was not as promiscuous as the women who did not suggest the use of a condom.

The second part of the study had 193 college student participants. These participants read small essays that depicted the women all suggesting condoms use but negotiating them in one of three ways: 1) worry over sexually transmitted diseases, 2) refusal if no condom is used or 3) eroticism to invoke the male to wear a condom so that the female would feel sexier and more sexually free. Based the on the type of negotiation the woman used in the scenario, the participants were asked to express their view of the woman’s character.

Female participants found the erotic method to highlight a woman who was promiscuous; the researchers felt this depicted that women are not fond of other women who come across as sexual. However, the participants did note that the chances of the couple using a condom were more likely if the female used the erotic approach to suggesting condoms. In their study, the authors state, “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.”