Health
28 Nov 2013
Professor John de Wit discusses HIV research and self-regulation
Frontiers presents an exclusive interview with Professor John de Wit, director of the Centre for Social Research in Health, Sydney, Australia. He recently joined Frontiers as an associate editor for the HIV and AIDS editorial board. What drove you to focus more on the social aspects of HIV rather than the biomedical? When I was a psychology student, at what is now called Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands), my interest was in understanding and changing the factors that shape people’s experiences and behaviours. I was in particular fascinated by theories of attitudes and attitude change, through communication. When I became aware of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s and had to decide on a topic for my master’s thesis, it seemed logical to look at the efficacy of HIV education in schools. This first research experience made me realise just how difficult it is to change people’s beliefs, attitudes and practices. My research over the 20 years since that early experience has been concerned with what I consider not only the most fascinating riddle of them all, but also a key component of an effective HIV response: the question why we do what we do, even if it can put us in harm’s way, and […]
