Contexts

Especially when the conversation is about their own sexual history, most people have a hard time talking about sex. This taboo, though, has serious consequences: the failure to talk safe sex can turn into a failure to practice safe sex.

The solution? Settle in for some Sex and the City. In their June 2011 Journal of Communication article, Emily Moyer-Gusé, Adrienne Chung, and Parul Jain showed three groups of people different episodes of the HBO series: one in which the main characters discuss sexual history and STI testing, one in which there is an STI plotline but no discussion among characters, and an episode that didn’t address sexual health at all. Immediately after watching the episodes, the participants assessed their own sexual-talk activities. Two weeks later, when asked again, those participants who had watched the episode with sexual discussion were now more likely to have engaged in conversations about sexual health than the other groups.

The authors believe this isn’t only due to the social scripts TV shows offer, but also to viewers’ indentification with characters. When watching successful individuals openly discuss sexual health, research participants were motivated to begin their own discussions. This is to say, the messenger seems to matter as much as the message.