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Explicitness, disgust, and safe sex behavior: A message experiment with U.S. adults
Sebastiaan Gorissen1, Helen M Lillie2, Daniel Chavez-Yenter3
1Minot State University, Division of Art and Professional Communication, 500 University Avenue West, Minot, ND, 58707, USA.
Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|October 9, 2022
Summary
Using explicit language in sexual health messages increases safe sex intentions by triggering disgust. This finding is particularly strong for individuals with lower dispositional disgust, suggesting tailored messaging can enhance public health communication.
Area of Science:
- Health Communication
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Communicating sexual health risks is difficult due to potential audience aversion to explicit language.
- Pathogen avoidance theory provides a framework for understanding reactions to explicit content.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how varying levels of explicit language in sexual health messages affect perceptions and safe sex intentions.
- To investigate the moderating role of individual differences, such as dispositional disgust, on message effectiveness.
Main Methods:
- Adults (N=498) were randomly assigned to view safe sex messages with either low or high explicit language.
- Perceived disgust and safe sex behavioral intentions were measured.
- Dispositional hygiene disgust was assessed as a moderator.
Main Results:
- High explicit language significantly increased perceived disgust.
- Increased disgust indirectly led to higher intentions for safe sex behavior.
- Dispositional disgust moderated the effect, with less disgusted individuals responding more positively to explicit messages.
Conclusions:
- Increased message explicitness can enhance sexual health communication effectiveness.
- Findings have implications for pathogen avoidance, the behavioral immune system, and understanding disgust.
- Tailoring message explicitness based on individual disgust sensitivity may optimize public health campaigns.
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