Among men who had been HIV infected at the time of the unsafe encounter (n = 88), the most common self-justification had been the thought that they had nothing more to lose among uninfected men (n = 207), it had been a resolution to have intercourse without ejaculation.
The aims were to record self-justifications for unprotected intercourse used in the unsafe encounter and to identify situational factors distinguishing between the encounters.
In 1990, gay men (N = 296) in Sydney, Australia, were asked to recall two sexual encounters from the preceding year: one in which they had unprotected anal intercourse ('unsafe' encounter) and one in which they had resisted a strong temptation to have unprotected intercourse ('safe' encounter).