Lights, camera, condoms! Assessing college men's attitudes toward condom use in pornography

Investigate male college students' attitudes toward actors' use of condoms in pornography.

Two hundred thirteen undergraduate males attending a large, state-supported midwestern university in the fall semester, 2012.

Using a Web-based procedure, participants completed questionnaires assessing their pornography use, sexual history characteristics, and their attitudes toward condom use by adult performers.

Factor analysis of the 11-item condom use attitudes questionnaire supported 2 distinct subscales: Condom Supportive Attitudes and Condom Critical Attitudes. Although participants typically agreed with statements supportive of condom use and generally disagreed with statements critical of condom use in pornography, gay men had significantly higher condom supportive subscale scores than did heterosexual men. Neither subscale was correlated with weekly viewing of pornography.

Although some producers of adult films argue that actors wearing condoms will displease many viewers, current findings suggest that young men express support for use of condoms by pornographic film actors.