Teens and Sex
Why doesn’t abstinence-only education deter teens from having sex? Consider this R-rated experiment, led by the behavioral economist Dan Ariely and neuroeconomist George Loewenstein. They began by asking twenty-five male undergraduates at UC-Berkeley a series of provocative sexual questions. The first set of questions concerned their sexual preferences. Could they imagine having sex with a 60 year old woman? What about getting sexually excited by contact with an animal? Did they like getting tied up during sex? The next set of questions dealt with sexual morality. Would the male students slip a woman a drug to increase the chance that she would have sex with them? Would they keep trying to have sex after their date said “no”? The final set of questions was about safe sex. Would the men insist on using a condom? Is it safe to have unprotected sex if you “pull out” before ejaculation?
The Frontal Cortex : Teens and Sex.
The problem is that, nor does the educational programs that advocate safe sex. It is a problem of the “intervention” – namely abstinence education or safe sex education not having the desired effect in the study populace – the message is not getting across. The above study is a reflection of that. Maybe it has something to do with the the methods used.
