Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa

dc.contributor.authorNattrass, Nicoli
dc.contributor.authorGrebe, Eduard
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-29T16:29:42Z
dc.date.available2016-06-29T16:29:42Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.date.updated2016-05-26T08:41:50Z
dc.description.abstractThis paper explores the prevalence of AIDS conspiracy beliefs (about the origin of AIDS) and AIDS denialist beliefs amongst young adults in Cape Town. Since there is some evidence that AIDS conspiracy beliefs are associated with risky sex – in particular, a greater likelihood of reporting sex without a condom (Bogart & Thorburn Bird 2003; Bogart & Thorburn 2005) – the relationship between these beliefs and condom use is thoroughly investigated. It also explores the socio-economic correlates of these beliefs and the potential effect of civil society mobilisation around HIV/AIDS on both conspiracy and denial beliefs and on sexual behaviour. The data analysis was conducted on near-final data from the 2009 wave of the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS). The dataset comprises 3 142 respondents between the ages of 19 and 35 from all races and income groups, but mostly Africans and Coloureds (42% and 49% of respondents respectively). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of its kind (apart from a preliminary analysis presented in October 2009, on which this paper is partly based) that is able to take into account both the race and class dimension of these beliefs and their implications for sexual behaviour (Nattrass 2009) and the first to investigate the relationship between the activities of the prominent South African AIDS activist organisation, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and conspiracy/denial beliefs as well as sexual risk-taking. The paper is also distinctive in separating out AIDS conspiracy beliefs (about the origin of AIDS) from AIDS denialist beliefs. This is because these beliefs do not necessarily fit logically together, and in any case appear to appeal to different social bases and ‘oppositional transcripts’.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationNattrass, N., & Grebe, E. (2010). <i>Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20174en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNattrass, Nicoli, and Eduard Grebe <i>Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20174en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNattrass, N., & Grebe, E. (2010). Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Nattrass, Nicoli AU - Grebe, Eduard AB - This paper explores the prevalence of AIDS conspiracy beliefs (about the origin of AIDS) and AIDS denialist beliefs amongst young adults in Cape Town. Since there is some evidence that AIDS conspiracy beliefs are associated with risky sex – in particular, a greater likelihood of reporting sex without a condom (Bogart & Thorburn Bird 2003; Bogart & Thorburn 2005) – the relationship between these beliefs and condom use is thoroughly investigated. It also explores the socio-economic correlates of these beliefs and the potential effect of civil society mobilisation around HIV/AIDS on both conspiracy and denial beliefs and on sexual behaviour. The data analysis was conducted on near-final data from the 2009 wave of the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS). The dataset comprises 3 142 respondents between the ages of 19 and 35 from all races and income groups, but mostly Africans and Coloureds (42% and 49% of respondents respectively). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of its kind (apart from a preliminary analysis presented in October 2009, on which this paper is partly based) that is able to take into account both the race and class dimension of these beliefs and their implications for sexual behaviour (Nattrass 2009) and the first to investigate the relationship between the activities of the prominent South African AIDS activist organisation, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and conspiracy/denial beliefs as well as sexual risk-taking. The paper is also distinctive in separating out AIDS conspiracy beliefs (about the origin of AIDS) from AIDS denialist beliefs. This is because these beliefs do not necessarily fit logically together, and in any case appear to appeal to different social bases and ‘oppositional transcripts’. DA - 2010 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2010 T1 - Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa TI - Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20174 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/20174
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNattrass N, Grebe E. Prevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. 2010 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20174en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en_ZA
dc.titlePrevalence and determinants of AIDS conspiracy and AIDS denialist beliefs and implications for risky sexual behaviour among young adults in Cape Town, South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch paperen_ZA
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