BLAMING THE SAME-SEX VICTIM IN HIV-PREVENTION MESSAGES - FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE SELF-PROTECTIVE SIMILARITY BIAS

It has been demonstrated recently that men will judge their own (threa t-relevant) personalities and sexual practices as safer than another m an's if that man's HIV status is believed positive compared to negativ e or is unknown (Gump & Kulik, 1995). The present experiment was desig ned to expand our understanding of the moderators and mediators of thi s recently documented ''self-protective similarity bias.'' College stu dents (N = 150) participated in a 2 (Sex of Participant) x 2 (Sex of M odel) x 3 (Serostatus: Positive, Negative, Unknown) x 2 (Threat Releva nce of Item) factorial design with repeated measures on the last facto r. Results indicated that the similarity bias specifically occurs with same-sex models. Analyses of self-ratings and model ratings suggest t hat the similarity bias was more a function of ''blaming'' or devaluin g the victim than of inflated ratings of the participant's own safety characteristics. Finally, although this bias reduced perceived persona l susceptibility and was specific to same-sex models, intentions to ad opt safer sexual practices were raised by all HIV-positive models rega rdless of sex concordance.