US government spends almost half a million on Grindr study
By Josh Haggis
The US government has spent nearly half-a-million dollars on a study of gay hookup apps.
It has emerged that The National Institutes of Health awarded Columbia University $432,000 to interview 60 gay men who use the apps regularly to determine whether they increase the chances of engaging in high-risk sexual activity.
“Given the expediency with which men are able to arrange sexual encounters using these applications, there is cause to question if, when, and how sexual negotiation and serostatus disclosure occurs,” the study states.
“The overall study goal is to understand how sexual risk behaviors among MSM [men who have sex with men] may be facilitated by the nature of GPS-enabled smartphone applications, the way they are used, and the process by which sexual partnering occurs via smartphone applications.”
The study also looked at the arousal levels of gay men while they use the apps, in an effort to discover the “sexual and emotional states” that gay men experience when they actively seek out a partner on their mobile phones.
Meanwhile, gay social app Jack’d recently unveiled a video showing what the world would be like if gay men talked how they do on hookup apps in real life – watch the hilarious clip here.
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