Abstract
Despite the well-documented role of condoms in safe sex, people frequently fail to use them. Embarrassment and other negative emotions that occur while acquiring condoms may make it less likely that people will consistently purchase condoms, subsequently decreasing condom use. It is important to examine how situational factors affect emotions related to condom purchasing behaviors. Two experiments examined the influence of different condom purchasing situations on emotions felt and willingness to purchase condoms. Participants imagined one of three condom purchasing scenarios: anonymously at a self-checkout counter, non-anonymously at a regular checkout counter, or asking for condoms from a locked display. Results revealed that participants’ self-reported willingness to purchase condoms increased as levels of anonymity increased. Similarly, participants reported more positive emotions as anonymity increased. A negative correlation between negative emotion and willingness to purchase condoms also emerged. Overall, results suggest a need for businesses to help provide anonymity to customers, perhaps through incorporating self-checkouts into their stores to potentially decrease negative emotion felt and increase condom sales and potentially consistent condom use.
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Notes
In the interest of transparency, we would like to note that an additional Experiment similar to Experiment 1 was conducted in which participant gender was not collected. We chose to exclude this from the paper due to redundancy and space limitions.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments and thanks go to Melissa Guynn and Laura Madson for comments on an earlier draft.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Condom Purchasing Scenarios
Anonymous/Self-Checkout
Imagine you need to buy condoms. You go to the store, head to the condom aisle, and see the kind you want. You choose the condoms you want and head to the self-checkout counter. You scan the condoms yourself without assistance, bag them, pay for the condoms, and leave.
Non-anonymous/Regular Checkout
Imagine you need to buy condoms. You go to the store, head to the condom aisle, and see the kind you want. You choose the condoms you want and head to the checkout counter. A clerk is available and you put the condoms on the counter to be checked out. The clerk rings up the condoms and bags them. You pay for the condoms and leave.
Non-anonymous Asking/Locked Display
Imagine you need to buy condoms. You go to the store, head to the condom aisle, and see the kind you want. The condoms are in a locked display, so you find a clerk and ask them to open it for you. You choose the condoms you want and ask the clerk to ring you out. You put the condoms on the counter to be checked out. The clerk rings up the condoms and bags them. You pay for the condoms and leave.
Appendix 2: PANAS-X (Shortened Version)
This scale consists of a number of words and phrases that describe different feelings and emotions. Read each item and then mark the appropriate answer in the space next to that word. Indicate to what extent you would feel this way given you were actually in the hypothetical condom purchasing scenario described to you on the previous page. Use the following scale to record your answers:
Appendix 3: Multidimensional Condom Attitude Scale
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Young, T.M., Marks, M.J., Zaikman, Y. et al. Situational Influences on Condom Purchasing. Sexuality & Culture 21, 925–941 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9431-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9431-0