Effects of alcohol on women’s risky sexual decision making during social interactions in the laboratory. Psychology of Women Quarterly 35

This experiment examined the effects of alcohol on women’s sexual decision making during a laboratory social interaction with a potential dating partner. Participants completed an assessment of sex-related alcohol expectancies, were randomly assigned to consume alcohol, no alcohol, or a placebo, and then interacted with a male confederate. Stronger sex-related alco-hol expectancies and actual alcohol consumption significantly increased women’s sexual relationship interest in their interac-tion partner, which in turn was associated with lower ratings of partner sexual risk. Lower ratings of partner sexual risk predicted increased intention to engage in unprotected sex. These findings demonstrate alcohol consumption’s causal effects on sexual risk judgments made during analogue social interactions, delineate the indirect effects of alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption on sexual risk decisions, and provide support for a Cognitive Mediation Model of women’s sexual deci-sion making. These findings can inform empirically based intervention programs designed to reduce the sexual risk taking of women. Keywords drinking behavior, sexual risk taking, risk assessment, cognitive appraisal Recent statistics indicate that sexually transmitted HIV infection is increasing among young, heterosexual women