| Abstract: | On November 7, 1991, Earvin (“Magic”) Johnson, Jr., announced that he was HIV positive. At the time of this announcement, the authors had just finished collecting data on subjects’ willingness to help a person with the AIDS virus (PWA). These preannouncement data were compared to data collected 1 week, 2/12 months, and months after the announcement. It was predicted that in the week immediately after the disclosure, helping of the PWA would increase significantly, but, over time, helping would return to the preannouncement level. This hypothesis was confirmed; in the week following the announcement, the percentage of men who offered help and the amount of help offered by men and women increased significantly. Four and one-half months after the announcement, helping was back to preannouncement levels. No consistent pattern of changes in affective reactions to the PWA were found. The results were discussed within the context of Kelman's (1958) theory of the different processes of attitude and behavior change and Petty and Cacioppo's (1986) elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. |
