ABSTRACT
How one should analyse the ways individuals cope with the risk of AIDS in their relationships is one of the keys for prevention and a major challenge for the social sciences. So far, many of the efforts made by investigators have led to dead ends. It is still difficult to be able to account for and predict individuals’ behaviour systematically when it comes to talking about AIDS or managing the risk of HIV infection. Even informed persons who profess preventive attitudes do not comply in practice with the very principles to which they subscribe when it comes to protection, or they vary their behaviour from one relationship to the next.
