Decision-Making for HIV AIDS Prevention: Altruism and the Moral Norm

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this enquiry was to understand how gay men form and maintain their attitudes toward HIV transmission preventative behaviors. Autobiographical life histories of sixteen gay men showed that once they acquired knowledge of preventative behavior they consistently adhered to that behavior. They adhered because of fear of HIV infection and because they held a moral norm that obligated them to behave altruistically (Schwartz, 1977) to protect not only themselves, but also their sex partners, loved ones, and their positive self-evaluation. They saw their HIV negative status, and their adherence, as pre-requisite and enabler for achieving their goals in life. Dick and Basu’s (1994) Framework for Customer Loyalty, a commercial marketing communications theoretical framework, explains development and maintenance of these men’s loyalty (their consistent adherence). This understanding, within a marketing communications framework, will inform development of social marketing communications aiming to increase adherence to behaviors that prevent HIV transmission.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• prevention
• moral norm
• altruism
• adherence
• loyalty
• gay

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the narrators for their courage, honesty and bravery in revealing their autobiographical life stories for this project. As they say, “without you, none of this would have been possible.” We would also like to thank the many practitioners and academics in Australia, the UK and USA who gave generously of their time when helping us to develop this project.

Disclosure statement

Dr Campbell is a Life Member of Thorne Harbour Health (formerly the Victorian AIDS Council) and an Associate Member of Living Positive Victoria. These are both not-for-profit care and advocacy organizations. Profesor Johnson has no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.