WHAT IS YOUR NUMBER? SOCIAL NORMS SURROUNDING DESIRED NUMBER OF SEXUAL PARTNERS IN THE MECHANICAL TURK POPULATION

Previous research has found that having multiple sexual partners is associated with an increased likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. The current thesis uses the social norms approach to study misperceptions about desired number of sexual partners. This thesis consists of two studies. The first examines the relationship between a participant's desired number of sexual partners and their perception of their peers' desired number of sexual partners. The second examines if different normative messages describing a participant's peer group influence the participant's desired number of sexual partners. The normative messages either showed the average desired number of sexual partners by a participant's peers, the most frequent (modal) desired number of sexual partners, or a control message for each participant's peer group. Across both studies, participants overestimated how many sexual partners their peers desired. Participants' overestimation also significantly correlated with participants' desired number of sexual partners. In the second study, the mean desired number of sexual partners was compared across the three normative messages. No significant mean difference was found when the average normative message was compared to the control normative message. However, participants who viewed the modal normative message desired significantly fewer sexual partners than participants who viewed the control normative message.