{"id":29955,"date":"2011-11-08T17:38:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T22:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=29955"},"modified":"2018-07-05T10:17:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T14:17:20","slug":"magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson and Public Opinion on AIDS and Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty years ago today, Magic Johnson told the world that he was H.I.V.-positive. What had been largely a \u201cgay disease\u201d in the public\u2019s mind now had a very different face. Did this make a difference?<\/p>\n<p>Philip H. Pollock III, a <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/politicalscience\/\">political science professor<\/a> at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, had an answer, thanks to a bit of good luck: he came upon a November 1991 poll in Florida that included questions about AIDS and, most crucially, he was in the field when Mr. Johnson made his announcement. By comparing the responses of people interviewed before and after the announcement, he could estimate its effect on public opinion about AIDS.<\/p>\n<p>In a 1994 article, he found that Mr. Johnson\u2019s announcement changed the underpinnings of opinion. Although views of homosexuals were associated with opinion about AIDS \u2014 those with less favorable views of homosexuals were in turn less likely to support spending for AIDS treatment and research \u2014 Mr. Johnson\u2019s announcement made attitudes toward heterosexual sex a more important underpinning of opinion about AIDS. In particular, those with more conservative values (in this case, those who believe premarital sex is always or almost always wrong) became slightly less supportive of spending to fight AIDS. But those who believed that premarital sex was only sometimes or never wrong became more supportive of AIDS spending \u2014 by 15 points, in fact. Mr. Johnson\u2019s announcement had shifted the types of values that people drew on when forming opinions about AIDS.<\/p>\n<p>The same finding showed up in a separate 1992 poll in which respondents were asked to name a celebrity with AIDS. Approximately 50 percent named Mr. Johnson. Among these respondents, attitudes toward premarital sex were again associated with attitudes toward AIDS; this association was substantially weaker among those who did not recall Mr. Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Pollock argues that having a famous heterosexual acknowledge his H.I.V.-positive status changed how the problem of AIDS was \u201cconstructed\u201d in the public sphere:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">\u2026It took dramatic symbolism to communicate this construction of the problem to the public at large, to disrupt the way AIDS was discussed and argued in families, among peers and co-workers, and in other social settings. As we have seen, that was the role \u2014 and may define the legacy \u2014 of \u201cMagic\u201d Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty years ago today, Magic Johnson told the world that he was H.I.V.-positive. What had been largely a \u201cgay disease\u201d in the public\u2019s mind now had a very different face. Did this make a difference? Philip H. Pollock III, a political science professor at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, had an answer, thanks to a bit of good luck: he&hellip;","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[21,23],"tags":[982,6168,3750],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-29955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","category-research","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-philip-h-pollock","tag-political-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Magic Johnson and Public Opinion on AIDS and Sex | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twenty years ago today, Magic Johnson told the world that he was H.I.V.-positive. What had been largely a \u201cgay disease\u201d in the public\u2019s mind now had a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Magic Johnson and Public Opinion on AIDS and Sex\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twenty years ago today, Magic Johnson told the world that he was H.I.V.-positive. What had been largely a \u201cgay disease\u201d in the public\u2019s mind now had a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-08T22:38:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-05T14:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Terry Helms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Terry Helms\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Terry Helms\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f83b77800ced2081c86229648f953680\"},\"headline\":\"Magic Johnson and Public Opinion on AIDS and Sex\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-08T22:38:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-05T14:17:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/magic-johnson-and-public-opinion-on-aids-and-sex\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":388,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"College of Sciences\",\"Philip H. 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