SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Lies About Sex Raise Concern Over AIDS Risk

It may be useless to ask potential sexual partners about their risk factors for AIDS because people in that situation tend to lie, according to a survey of Southern California college students.

The survey of 422 sexually active college students found a “sizable percentage” admitted that they had lied to have sex, researchers said.

One-third of the men and 10% of the women said they had told a lie to obtain sex, said Susan Cochran, an associate professor of psychology at Cal State Northridge who helped conduct the survey.

In addition, when the students were asked hypothetically whether they would lie about testing positively for the AIDS virus, 20% of the men and 4% of the women said they would.

The survey indicates that “telling people to question their partners about their risk histories for AIDS is probably bad advice,” especially when such interrogations are used as “substitutes for safe sex practices,” she said.

Cochran recommended that doctors caution patients that “safe-sex strategies are important,” no matter what their partners say, and especially in areas with high rates of drug use and sexual experimentation.

Cochran conducted the study with Vickie Mays, a psychologist at UCLA. Their findings were reported in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.