Abstract
The belief that alcohol use leads to sexual risk behavior is nearly ubiquitous. To determine if this belief is warranted, we identify theory and research regarding the alcohol, risky-sex link. We focus our review on studies that use the event-level methodology because this approach provides a particularly sensitive but stringent test of the situational alcohol, risky-sex connection. Overall, the data from available event-level studies indicate that people who use condoms when they are sober also tend to use them when drinking; people who fail to use condoms when drinking probably also fail to use them when sober. We recognize several empirical exceptions to this rule and provide suggestions for future research.