NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Mistaken assumptions about black sexuality are finding their way into scientific research on the spread of HIV, and this could do more to fuel risky behavior than prevent it, authors of a new commentary warn.

Reports on African-American men who identify themselves as straight but secretly have sex with men  dubbed the “down low” lifestyle  first appeared when men who said they were part of this subculture wrote books about it and the media picked up the story, Dr. Chandra L. Ford of Columbia University in New York City, the commentary’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

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Despite the non-scientific source, epidemiologists began doing research based on the idea that black men living the down low lifestyle were driving the spread of HIV, she and her colleagues note in their article in the Annals of Epidemiology.

This assumption was mistaken in many ways, they explain. First of all, the practice of straight men secretly having sex with men is seen across all ethnic groups. (source)