AIDS conspiracy beliefs directly increased black men’s unsafe-sex behavior.

Evidence

But AIDS conspiracy theories are particularly dangerous in that they can lead directly to unsafe sex. The 2005 study found that black men who held conspiratorial beliefs about AIDS were less likely to use safer sex practices. The more a man supported one of these theories, the less likely he was to use a condom. (Women didn’t show that tendency.) The researchers also suggested that for men who didn’t particularly want to wear a condom in the first place, the conspiracy theories helped serve as justification for declining to slip one on. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 181

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to vault claims about justifiedness/anger mechanisms and how identity-linked beliefs license behavior — parallel to claims that perceived grievances justify refusal behavior in other contexts. — connects to: AIDS conspiracy beliefs directly reduce condom use among black men — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 181
• SEED: Angle: conspiracy belief functions as post-hoc justification for preferred behavior — a mechanism generalizing across AIDS, vaccines, and political refusal.

Broader Connections

• AIDS conspiracy beliefs directly reduce condom use among black men #corroborates (0.97) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 181