This WJBC article reports an Illinois Wesleyan University assistant professor has landed the college's largest-ever grant to create a virtual reality program to research what influences a person's decision to use a condom. From the article: The $1.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health will be used to place people in virtual social situations and study their reactions to different variables, such as a party's atmosphere, a potential mate's appearance, or geographic availability, to see whether they influence safer sex-related decisions. Assistant Psychology Professor Natalie Smoak says the research could have practical applications, especially in this world of Internet dating.
Smoak says the goal is to see if risky sexual decisions are based on environmental cues or personality to determine the best education approach."