Heart versus reason in condom use: Implicit versus explicit attitudinal predictors of sexual behavior

We test the hypothesis that explicit and implicit measures of attitudes wou ld differentially predict deliberate versus spontaneous behavior in the dom ain of condom use. Students completed explicit attitudinal and thought-list ing measures about using condoms and implicit measures using attitude primi ng and Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures. An attitude IAT measured the association between condom images and affective images; a self-identit y IAT measured association of condoms with the self. We predicted and found that condom use with main partners was predicted by explicit measures but not implicit measures; the opposite was true for condom use with casual par tners. Although the attitude priming measure was not positively correlated with casual condom use, the IATs were. The patterns of relations, however, were unexpectedly complex, due to a strong decrease in IAT effects over lim e, and different La;Ts assessing unique attitudinal dimensions.