Persuading People To Have Safer Sex

Book excerpt: Persuading People to Have Safer Sex offers a lucid, in-depth, student-friendly and academically thorough discussion of AIDS prevention and health persuasion. In so doing it provides an introduction to the ways that social scientific research can be brought to bear on a daunting health problem. Covering many aspects of the AIDS crisis, the book introduces readers to the severity of the AIDS problem and explains the epidemiology of the disease. It discusses why persuasion is so important, explicates cognitive theories of AIDS prevention, and notes the role emotions and communication play in safer sex prevention. It also discusses: *functions that unsafe sex plays in peoples' lives; *why people, notably minority women, frequently choose to engage in unsafe sex; and *social factors underlying the spread of AIDS in urban America and portions of Africa. As a resource for introducing students to the role that theory and research play in health communication and psychology, the volume is appropriate for use in communication, journalism, social psychology, and public health courses, and will be of value to scholars, researchers, and all who seek to understand the use of persuasion in changing behavior.