Sexual discounting is a growing area of research aimed at identifying factors that reduce people’s reported willingness to have safe sex. One commonly reported reason for condom non-use is that a condom reduces sexual arousal. However, researchers have yet to isolate the specific role of sexual arousal using a sexual discounting framework. We extended past research by measuring how sexual arousal reduced people’s willingness to have condom-protected sex (“sexual arousal discounting”: SAD). College students (n = 379; 67.5% females) selected partners they most wanted and least wanted to have sex with and were randomized to one of two groups. In one group, participants rated their willingness to have sex with a condom if their own arousal decreased (from 100 to 10%) from condom use. The other group completed the same task except their partner’s arousal decreased from condom use instead of their own. We observed a three-way interaction between arousal levels, most versus least desirable partners, and self versus partner groups. Participants’ willingness to have condom-protected sex systematically reduced as a function of sexual arousal. This was observed more with the most (vs. least) desirable partner and in the self-arousal (vs. partner-arousal) group but only when the partner was their least desirable. Men (vs. women) displayed more arousal discounting but only with the most desirable partner. Finally, higher arousal discounting was associated with lower safe-sex self-efficacy and higher reported frequency of unprotected sex in the past 3 months. This study demonstrates how reduced sexual arousal from condom use can be measured as a factor influencing sexual risk-taking.

性折扣是一个不断增长的研究领域，旨在确定降低人们报告的安全性行为意愿的因素。不使用避孕套的一个常见原因是避孕套会降低性唤起。然而，研究人员尚未使用性折扣框架来分离性唤起的具体作用。我们通过测量性唤起如何降低人们进行安全套保护性行为的意愿来扩展过去的研究（“性唤起折扣”：SAD）。大学生 ( n = 379; 67.5% 的女性）选择了她们最想和最不想与之发生性关系的伴侣，然后随机分配到两组中的一组。在一组参与者中，如果他们自己的唤醒因使用安全套而降低（从 100% 到 10%），他们会评估他们是否愿意与安全套发生性关系。另一组完成了相同的任务，只是他们的伴侣因使用安全套而不是他们自己的安全套而降低了唤醒度。我们观察到唤醒水平、最理想与最不理想的合作伙伴以及自我与合作伙伴群体之间的三向互动。作为性唤起的函数，参与者进行安全套保护性行为的意愿系统性地降低。这在最（与最不）理想的伴侣和自我唤醒（与伴侣-唤醒）组中观察到更多，但仅当伴侣是他们最不理想的时候。男人（对比 女性）表现出更多的唤醒折扣，但仅限于最理想的伴侣。最后，在过去 3 个月内，较高的唤醒折扣与较低的安全性行为自我效能感和较高的无保护性行为频率有关。这项研究表明，如何将使用避孕套导致的性唤起减少作为影响性冒险的一个因素来衡量。