differences in these attitudes between individuals but also changes in attitude across
time.
Research has asked the question, ‘Do people feel vulnerable to the HIV virus?’
Temoshok et al. (1987) carried out a survey of people living in a number of different
cities in the USA and asked these people whether AIDS was seen as a personal health
concern. The proportions responding ‘yes’ were as follows: San Francisco, 33 per cent;
New York, 57 per cent; Miami, 50 per cent; and Los Angeles, 47 per cent.
It is interesting to note that subjects in San Francisco, which had the highest inci-
dence of HIV-positive individuals in the USA, reported seeing HIV as less of a personal
health concern than those living in other cities. There are two possible explanations for
this, which raise questions about the complex interrelationship between knowledge,
education, personal experience and attitudes. First, by living in a city with high levels
of HIV and high exposure to health education on information around HIV and AIDS,
knowledge of the disease is increased. This knowledge makes people feel less vulnerable
because they believe they can do something about it. Alternatively, however, perhaps
being exposed to AIDS and HIV, and death following AIDS, increases the sense of fear and
denial in individuals living in cities where there is a high prevalence of the illness. Feeling
less vulnerable may reflect this denial.
Many studies in the UK have also examined individuals’ perception of risk and its
relationship to knowledge. Research in the late 1980s and early 1990s indicated that
although knowledge about transmission of HIV was high, many college students
reported being relatively invulnerable to HIV. Abrams et al. (1990: 49) reported that
‘young people have a strong sense of AIDS invulnerability which seems to involve a
perception that they have control over the risk at which they place themselves’.
Woodcock et al. (1992) examined young people’s interpretations of their personal risk
of infection and suggested that although some subjects acknowledged that they were at
risk, this was often dismissed because it was in the past and ‘it would show by now’.
However, many subjects in this study denied that they were at risk and justified this in
terms of beliefs such as ‘it’s been blown out of proportion’, ‘AIDS is a risk you take in
living’, ‘partners were (or are) not promiscuous’, or partners came from geographical
areas that were not regarded as high-risk (e.g. the New Forest in southern England was
considered a low-risk area and Glasgow, a high-risk area) (see Chapter 8 for a discussion
of risk perception and condom use).
Another question that has been asked about HIV is, ‘Does the sexuality and sexual
behaviour of individuals influence their beliefs about HIV?’ Temoshok et al. (1987)
examined gay, bisexual and heterosexual men’s beliefs about HIV. The results suggested
that gay and bi-sexual men believe that AIDS was more important than heterosexual
men. This group showed higher levels of knowledge about HIV, reported having been
concerned about HIV for a longer period of time, reported feeling more susceptible
to HIV, and reported feeling that their chances of getting HIV were higher than the
heterosexual population.
Some researchers have also looked at how teenagers and students view HIV, as they
tend to be particularly sexually active. Price et al. (1985) found that this group of
individuals, despite being high risk and sexually active, reported low levels of knowledge
and said that they were less likely to get AIDS.332 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY