A recent survey has shown that college freshmen are changing their attitudes about casual sex.

Only 40 percent of the students polled by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles said it is all right for two people to have sex if they only have known each other for a short time.

This is the lowest percentage it has been since the study was first instituted in 1966. The highest was 52 percent in 1987.

Jill Bystydzienski, professor of sociology and director of the women’s studies program, said she thinks the decline “is related to the HIV/AIDS scare, for good reason.”

“I don’t know if that means they’re behaving differently, but at least their attitudes are changed by that,” she said.

Scott Myers, assistant professor of sociology, said he also thought AIDS has affected students’ attitudes about casual sex. However, he said it is not just because the affliction is more prevalent, but because it is “closer” to them.

“We have more information about it; more of us are likely to know someone,” he said. “There’s support groups; there’s movies on it, so we’re just more aware of its presence.”

He said there are several other factors that have influenced students’ opinions about casual sex.

“Sex education and especially things like abstinence are more heavily taught in our schools than ever before, and [what is taught is] probably a more realistic view of sex,” he said. “They’re probably espousing things like ‘taking responsibility,’ ‘no means no.'”

Women’s attitudes also have changed in the last 10 years, Myers said.

“Women these days, especially young women, are fed a lot of … information that sex is demeaning, and they’re treated as objects,” he said. “And one way women can control that is by not engaging in the casual sex environment.”

Many young people seem to be becoming more conservative and religious, he said.

“We have all these kind of groups we never had before, like the straight-edgers who don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t do drugs and don’t have sex,” he said.

Bystydzienski also said she thinks students’ moral values have changed in the past few decades.

“I think some young people are being more influenced by religious groups,” she said.

Nathan Stewart, freshman in chemical engineering, said he thinks the survey’s results are “probably pretty much true,” due to new information available to students.

“Most of the people I know, they tend to not be so much in favor of casual sex,” he said.

Susan Olsen, freshman in environmental studies and landscape architecture, said she is surprised yet pleased with the results.

“I think it’s because just the more education and people find out [sexually transmitted diseases are] happening to their friends and think ‘Hey, it could happen to me,'” she said.