Sex and sexual orientation: The effect of group membership on individuals'judgments about self and others' HIV risk

No previous study has directly compared homosexual and heterosexual men and wr,men's perceptions of HIV risk. In fact, empirical research focusing on homosexual women's perception of HIV risk is scarce. This paper, therefore, examines whether homosexual and heterosexual women and men (N = 60) make v aried self and other (peer and non-peer) HIV risk judgments. The paper also examines the roles of motivational (health anxiety) and cognitive (HIV kno wledge) factors in relation to HIV risk judgments. The results show that ea ch group held different perceptions of risk for various "other" groups. Onl y homosexual men showed evidence for an optimistic bias, whereas homosexual women showed evidence of realistic perceptions. Both cognitive and motivat ional factors were shown to be associated with risk judgments for homosexua l women and heterosexual men. Methodologically the use of Multidimensional scaling as an analytic strategy is recommended. (C) 2001 by the Howarth Pre ss, Inc. All rights reserved.