Risk Perception
Risk perception was measured using a two-item scale. We asked participants to estimate the chance that they would ever attain an STI in their life (very small–very large chance). Using the same situation that was used to assess the explicit attitudes, we asked them how large they believed the chance was their partner would have an STI and how large the chance was they would attain an STI from this encounter. The internal consistency of scale with these three items was low (α = 0.618), but after deleting the first item (“How likely is it that you will get an STI at one point in your life?”) the internal consistency rose to α = 0.85. We therefore deleted the general item from the scale and retained the two situation-specific items.