HIV has been a widespread epidemic for over 30 years now; despite recent setbacks, researchers around the world are still heavily committed to developing a vaccine that will stop the virus in its tracks and help the millions of people who have yet to suffer its wrath. Now, some researchers are looking for answers to help fight the battle in a place where we might not have searched before: the human mind.

The Economic and Social Research Council recently funded a new study that shows human hope might be a very strong and overlooked tool to help in the war with AIDS. In a nutshell, the study determined that people who had goals and definitive plans for their futures (whether that involved careers, relationships, children or the like) were more likely to stay away from any situations that would give them a high risk of contracting a disease like AIDS; on the contrary, those people who did not have many high hopes for their own future were more likely to engage in actions that would put them at a higher risk. One example widely used in the study is of men who do not have any ambitious hopes or goals for their future – when engaging in sexual relations, they are less likely to wear a condom because the instant gratification and pleasure they feel when they do not wear a condom takes precedence over the future risk.

Tony Barnett, a professional from the London School of Economics, agrees with the study, “Current policies to tackle HIV/AIDS in Africa emphasize individual behavior such as the ABC approach to prevention: Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise. However, these measures require that people have hope for the future and goals to aim for. And if wider economic and social circumstances are so poor that people lack hope for the future, then these current policies will have limited success.” A prime example of this can be seen in the global fight against AIDS: while moderate success has been had in Western civilization, there has not been as great a degree of success in African nations. Consider the fact that in the country of Botswana, the life expectancy is 36 years for somebody with AIDS compared to 71 years for somebody who has not contracted the disease. Recent estimates have shown that within the next decade, the life expectancy may plummet even more to 30 years.

Studies like this one are demonstrating that in order to strengthen the fight against AIDS, researchers need to not only focus on a person’s behavior (as many research studies do), but their cultural, economic and social background as well. Researchers in the field of AIDS/HIV studies need to strongly consider that for most people, hope for things like a secure future, a successful adulthood and an ever-growing family tree have an enormous impact on the decisions an individual makes throughout his/her life. Having a disease like HIV/AIDS can literally destroy a person’s chances for any kind of hope which, in turn, can affect the entire society as infection rates soar. In Africa, for instance, where most people have little educational and financial support and, thus, bleak futures, young adults are more susceptible to contracting HIV at some point in their lives. Barnett states, “Hope is quite straightforward to measure via questionnaires and surveys can help to identify high risk environments. Although there is not a great deal of experience in developing programs to increase hope, policies such as cash support for children, microfinance for small businesses, women’s education, reduced discriminations against sexual minorities and health system reform will improve the wider environment. And with more to live for, interventions to encourage individuals to change their behavior are more likely to succeed.”