Misconceptions can prevent individuals from making informed choices and taking appropriate action. HIV/AIDS continues to be subject to much misconception and misinformed opinion. The purpose of the paper is to use a gender-based approach to investigate misconceptions about HIV/AIDS prevention and transmission. The data used are a nationally representative sample from the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey conducted in 2001. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to examine misconceptions by gender. Results from bivariate analysis show that a disproportionately higher percentage of males compared to females have misconceptions about how HIV/AIDS can be prevented and transmitted. Since misconceptions may prevent people from making informed choices, intervention programmes aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention should treat dispelling misconceptions as an important part of the prevention strategy.