CAN YOU SAY CONDOM - IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN FEAR-AROUSING AIDS-PREVENTION PUBLIC-SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

The study investigated the effect of adding a recommendation to use co ndoms to fear-arousing AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) on sub jects' intentions to use condoms and taking of Free condoms. Sexual co ntent of the AIDS PSA and subject gender were also varied. A sample of 112 men and 107 women rated the effectiveness of 1 of 8 fear-arousing AIDS PSAs. Four PSAs ended with a message to ''Use condoms to reduce the risk. For more information call ________.'' An identical set of PS As ended with only the telephone number for more information. Results showed that the recommendation had no effect on intentions to use cond oms. However, men exposed to a fear-arousing PSA with the recommendati on took significantly more condoms than men in the no-recommendation c ondition. Men also took significantly more condoms than women in the r ecommendation condition. The results are interpreted in terms of the A IDS risk reduction model (Catania, Kegeles, Pr Coales, 1990).