The price of promiscuity: why urban males in Tanzania are changing their sexual behaviour

Abstract

This article presents evidence of a substantial change in sexual behaviour among urban factory workers during the last four years; it discusses the nature of this change and the reasons for it. Fear of AIDS was the main motivating factor, followed by economic hardship: because AIDS is incurable and because sexual relationships have a substantial transactional component, workers see themselves as paying the price of promiscuity with their lives as well as their dwindling financial resources. Respondents preferred partner reduction, and in particular sticking to one partner, to condom use. Condoms were not popular, mainly because of fears that they were impregnated with HIV and because of their association with promiscuous behaviour.