A new study by Ellen Peters, associate professor of psychology, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that simply teaching people the facts about how to protect themselves from HIV may not be enough to prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Peters led a team of researchers to Ghana to find out whether more formal education leads people to make better health decisions or does it simply increase their knowledge about health-related matters or are there other cognitive changes at work. Formal education is a recent and relatively rare thing in Ghana, giving Peters the opportunity to study populations with very similar backgrounds and economic statuses, but different levels of schooling.

Participants from Eastern Ghana underwent a series of questions concerning their knowledge about HIV/AIDS, HIV protective behaviors, and their schooling. The researchers also tested their cognitive, numeracy and decision abilities.

Peters and her colleagues found that villagers in Ghana who had higher levels of cognitive and decision-making abilities – not just the most knowledge -- were the ones who were most likely to take steps to protect themselves from HIV infection. More formal education provided people with not only knowledge, but the ability to “extrapolate from health knowledge, think counterfactually about actions, reason statistically in everyday life and ultimately lead healthier lives.”

The results have important implications for fighting AIDS in Africa and other parts of the world that have large numbers of uneducated people.