Relational Risk: How Relationships Shape Personal Assessments of Risk and Mitigation
通过研究黑人及拉丁裔同性恋和双性恋男性对PrEP（艾滋病预防药物）的使用决策，发现个人对风险的评估深受亲密关系、社区归属和社会监控等关系因素影响，提出了“关系免疫”概念来解释人们为何拒绝看似有效的风险缓解工具。
Objects of risk mitigation are typically viewed as neutral items that limit exposure to an established hazard. However, people may refuse to adopt such tools, even when they feel vulnerable. This article explores how people assess their personal risk and mitigation options by examining PrEP use for HIV prevention. Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 40 Black and Latino gay, bisexual, and queer men, I argue PrEP uptake is a socially contextualized decision influenced by relational concerns. I develop the concept of relational inoculation, wherein individuals enact a sense of protection against harm through relational work. As individuals consider PrEP, they also contemplate how it may bolster or undermine intimacy they value for reducing interpersonal HIV exposure, as well as dispelling stigmatized notions of riskiness held by their intersecting ethno-racial and sexual minority communities. I develop testable propositions about how respondents’ HIV risk assessments and PrEP use are enmeshed in a societal context of surveillance, in ongoing relations with intimate partners and socially significant others, and in navigation of community belonging within this milieu of risk. This article contributes to sociological research at the nexus of race, sexuality, and health, and offers health policy insight.