SEX GUILT AND CONTRACEPTIVE KNOWLEDGE - INTERFERENCE OR JUSTIFICATION

Two hypotheses regarding the negative relationship between sex guilt a nd contraceptive knowledge were tested. The interference hypothesis ar gues that sex guilt induces strong negative emotions in response to se xual stimuli, which interfere with learning. The justification hypothe sis argues that high guilt persons selectively attend to negative info rmation about contraception to justify their sexual attitudes and beha viors. In the present study, high guilt men and women responded to an erotic stimulation manipulation with larger increases in negative affe ct than did low guilt subjects. After viewing a presentation on contra ception, however, high and low guilt subjects displayed equal levels o f negative affect and equal abilities to learn the information. Furthe rmore, high guilt subjects did not display biased processing of the in formation compared to low guilt subjects. Theoretical and empirical im plications of these data are discussed. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.