Citation

Harel I, Kogut T, Pinchas M, Slovic P. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2017; 114(20): 5159-5164.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1703020114

PMID

28461480

Abstract

We examine how presentations of organ donation cases in the media may affect people's willingness to sign organ donation commitment cards, donate the organs of a deceased relative, support the transition to an "opt-out" policy, or donate a kidney while alive. We found that providing identifying information about the prospective recipient (whose life was saved by the donation) increased the participants' willingness to commit to organ donation themselves, donate the organs of a deceased relative, or support a transition to an "opt-out" policy. Conversely, identifying the deceased donor tended to induce thoughts of death rather than about saving lives, resulting in fewer participants willing to donate organs or support measures that facilitated organ donation. A study of online news revealed that identification of the donor is significantly more common than identification of the recipient in the coverage of organ donation cases-with possibly adverse effects on the incidence of organ donations.

Language: en

Keywords

identifiable victim effect; organ donation; organ donation policy decisions; prosocial decisions