The effect of condoms in sexually explicit narratives on male sexual arousal

Research into why people choose not to use condoms despite a growing AIDS epidemic has tapped the attitude that the use of condoms somehow interferes with the progression of the sexual act or lessens sexual pleasure. The current study investigated the effects on male sexual arousal of condom use described in sexually explicit audiotaped narratives. The sexual arousal of 14 male university students was measured physiologically by penile plethysmography and by self-report using a within-subjects design. Subjects listened to 10 audiotaped scripts, half of which included the use of a condom and half of which did not. No significant differences in either physiological or subjective arousal data were found between conditions.It has been speculated that some people who choose not to use condoms in the context of a growing AIDS pandemic do so because condom use interferes with the progression of the sexual act or lessens sexual pleasure. 14 male students in undergraduate psychology courses at the University of North Dakota volunteered to listen to sexually explicit audiotaped narratives in a study of male sexual arousal in the context of condom use. 20 audio scripts based upon 10 sexually explicit scenarios were used in the study. Each approximately two-minute long script depicted sexual interactions culminating in sexual intercourse between an adult male and an adult female. Ten scripts depicted scenarios involving no condom use. Modified versions of these scripts included condom use, thereby comprising the other 10 scenarios. The scripts were recorded on standard audiotapes by an adult female not connected with the study. Each volunteer was placed alone in a room furnished with only a reclining chair, a pair of stereo headphones, and a Likert scale mounted on a wall four feet from the chair. The young men were told how to apply and calibrate the Parks Medical Electronics, Inc. model 240-A mercury-in-rubber strain gauge plethysmograph, a device capable of measuring slight changes in penile circumference. Each subject then alternately heard 10 randomly selected scripts, half involving condom use and half not. Physiological data on penile response while listening to the tapes were collected via Advanced CODAS software and stored individually for each subject on a Gateway computer. Each subject also reported upon his sexual arousal. No significant differences were observed in physiologically and subjectively assessed patterns of male sexual arousal between the condom-present and condom-absent conditions. The brief description of putting on a condom within a sexually explicit audiotaped narrative had neither detrimental nor enhancing effects upon male sexual arousal. That condoms and condom use truly have no effect upon male sexual arousal is, however, only one of many possible explanations for these findings.