Type of Sexual Activity Impacts the Discounting of "Safe Sex"

Discounting theory provides a framework for understanding how behaviors, such as condom-protected sex, can lose their value. Eligible participants [N = 498; M = 44.3 years of age; White (72.3%); heterosexual (81.9%)], recruited from Prolific, completed an online survey where they indicated their willingness to engage in penile-vaginal and penile-anal intercourse with a hypothetical partner, as well as their willingness to give oral sex to and receive oral sex from that person. To determine if the discounting of skin barriers (i.e. condoms and dental dams) varied across these sexual acts, participants then indicated the likelihood they would use a skin barrier based on 1) the sexual act they were randomly assigned to, 2) how long they had to wait for a skin barrier (i.e. delay discounting), and 3) the likelihood of contracting an STI (i.e. probability discounting). For each sexual act, the likelihood of using a skin barrier decreased as the delay to a skin barrier increased, or the probability of contracting an STI decreased. These effects were most pronounced when either giving or receiving oral sex compared to when engaging in penile-vaginal or penile-anal intercourse. Additionally, except for penile-anal intercourse, men and women were equally willing to engage in the specified sexual acts. However, greater discounting of a skin barrier by men was primarily restricted to penile-vaginal intercourse and receiving oral sex. These results have important implications for understanding how the likelihood of using a skin barrier is impacted by the type of sexual activity being engaged in.