Implicit Attitudes and HIV Risk Behavior in Virtual Environments

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的总体目的是纠正当前艾滋病毒性风险研究中的局限性。先前的研究侧重于审慎的、基于信念的对性危险行为的态度。然而，在性环境中，一个人对避孕套和艾滋病毒预防的态度的系统检索可能往往是最小的。最近的研究（Marsh et al., 2001,2005; Czopp et al., 2004）表明，在某些性环境中，内隐态度能更好地预测行为。内隐性态度是一种评价性反应，它是由性情境中的线索自动、毫不费力地唤起的，涉及感觉而不是口头表达的想法。反应延迟方法，特别是计算机启动型和内隐联想任务，用于评估内隐安全套态度。隐性措施有很大的希望，并在艾滋病毒风险领域产生了有趣的结果，尽管结果不一致。这些不一致可能是评估行为的局限性造成的。为了解决这些限制，在当前的研究中，我们使用沉浸式虚拟现实技术（VR）的前沿方法来测试关于隐式安全套态度与冲动性行为之间关系的关键理论预测。在此过程中，我们建议解决在人工情境中测量内隐态度的理论和方法问题，并解决先前由“非具身”自我报告行为测量产生的矛盾结果。一项定性研究首先验证了虚拟现实中的行为反应，并深入研究了虚拟现实过程的动态，比较了虚拟现实、角色扮演和书面场景引发的行为和心理反应。这项研究将在实地地点和大学实验室进行，参与者包括两个社区样本，并将包括风险暴露的生物伴随物以供验证。四项实验分别在城市、社区卫生服务站和大学实验室进行，旨在测试导致冲动行为的个人、社会和环境因素。在每个实验中，假设对态度的内隐测量比外显测量更能预测参与者在冲动情况下与HIV风险相关的反应。相反，明确的、基于意图的、可言语化的态度应该主要解释低冲动情况下的行为。其中一个社会因素实验检验了涉及城市人口中拉丁裔妇女特有的文化风险因素的社会线索（伴侣动机）；在非拉丁裔样本中检查了类似的线索。另外两项实验室和现场实验将验证一种假设，即改变内隐态度会改变虚拟现实中的冲动反应，并验证虚拟现实中的反应可以预测虚拟现实之外的后续风险相关行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching purpose of this proposal is to redress limitations in current research on HIV sexual risk. Previous research focuses on deliberative, belief-based attitudes toward sexual risk behaviors. Sexual contexts, however, epitomize situations in which systematic retrieval of one's attitudes toward condoms and HIV prevention might often be minimal. Recent research (Marsh et al., 2001, 2005; Czopp et al., 2004) suggests that in some sexual contexts behavior is better predicted by implicit attitudes. Implicit sexual attitudes are evaluative responses that are automatically and effortlessly evoked by cues in a sexual situation and involve feelings rather than verbally articulated thoughts. Response latency methods, specifically computerized priming-type and implicit association tasks, are used to assess implicit condom attitudes. Implicit measures have great promise and have yielded intriguing, though inconsistent, results in the area of HIV risk. These inconsistencies may be a result of limitations in assessing behavior. To address these limitations, in the current research, we use cutting-edge methods of immersive virtual reality technology (VR) to test key theoretical predictions about the relation between implicit condom attitudes and impulsive HIV risk-related sexual behavior. In doing so, we propose to resolve theoretical and methodological problems with measuring implicit attitudes in artificial contexts and resolve previous contradictory findings resulting from "unembodied" self- report behavior measures. One qualitative study serves to first validate behavioral responses in VR and examine the dyamics of VR processes in-depth, comparing behavioral and psychological responses elicited by VR, role-playing, and written scenarios. The study will be conducted at field sites and in university laboratories with participants that include two community samples, and will include biological concomitants of risk exposure included for validation. Four experiments conducted at an urban, community health service site and in university laboratories are designed to test the personal, social, and environmental factors that cue impulsive behavior. In each experiment, implicit measures of attitudes are hypothesized to predict participants' HIV risk- related responses in impulsive situations over and above explicit measures. In contrast, explicit, intention- based verbalizable attitudes predominantly should explain behavior in low impulsivity situations. One of the social factors experiments examines social cues involving cultural risk factors unique to Latina women in an urban population (partner motives); similar cues are examined in a non-Latina sample. Two additional laboratory and field experiments will test the hypothesis that changing implicit attitudes will change impulsive responses in virtual reality, and validate that responses in VR predict subsequent risk-related behavior outside of VR. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project focuses on processes that impact the spread of HIV: implicit attitudes, and situational cues to impulsivity. Using novel, immersive and "embodied" virtual reality technology, the current experiments attempt to better delineate implicit attitudes as precursors to HIV risk-related behavior. Because of the impulsivity that is often linked to HIV risk-related behavior, such behavior can be difficult to assess with self-report measures. If successful, the methods developed would offer important new ways of assessing and reducing HIV risk-related behavior in contexts that are particularly challenging to impact, and yet absolutely crucial for reducing the spread of HIV and other STIs.