Despite numerous national and international campaigns promoting safe sex and
warning of the risk of HIV infection, very few university students actually
carry condoms with them when they head out for a night on the town, a recent
UBC study shows.
The study is one of two condom-related studies conducted by Faculty of Commerce
and Business Administration marketing professors Gerald Gorn and Charles
Weinberg with doctoral student Darren Dahl. A second study found that
embarrassment plays a significant role in influencing students’ buying habits
for condoms, a product referred to as a “desirable unmentionable” by marketers.
The condom carrying study found that of 346 students surveyed while waiting to
get into the Pit Pub on campus, fewer than 10 per cent of men, and no women,
had condoms with them.
“We asked students to show us their condoms and found that very few were
actually carrying them. This differs significantly from what students indicated
in the self-reported written survey,” says Weinberg.
In the written survey of 376 UBC students, about one-third said they would be
very or somewhat likely to take a condom with them if they were going to a
bar.
Previous research relying on self-reports to assess condom carrying has also
shown reported carrying rates ranging from 22 per cent to 51 per cent for
males, and seven per cent to 51 per cent for females.
“This discrepancy between actual and self-reported condom carrying suggests a
danger in over-reliance on self-report measurements,” the UBC study states.
“The low carrying rate to a bar where meeting potential sex partners is a real
possibility is worrisome and underscores the risky behaviour of this
population.”
The study also draws attention to the differences between male and female
attitudes toward carrying condoms and suggests there is a need for a more
gender-specific approach to encourage condom carrying.
In the second study, Dahl, Gorn, and Weinberg investigated the embarrassment
associated with the purchase of condoms by looking at frequency of purchase and
the number of condoms purchased on each occasion.
The researchers found that, of people who had experience in buying condoms, 66
per cent of males and 59 per cent of females experienced at least some
embarrassment when making a condom purchase and that people were most
embarrassed in front of the cashier (49 per cent of males and 52 per cent of
females).
Also, single people and people in relationships appear to be equally
embarrassed about purchasing condoms.
“The result of this embarrassment is that students tend to buy condoms less
often and when they do, they buy smaller package sizes,” says Weinberg.
The study also showed that students who experience the highest levels of
embarrassment purchase condoms less frequently, have purchased condoms less
recently, and are slightly more likely to purchase condoms from a vending
machine than from drugstores, supermarkets, or other retail outlets.
