Communicating about gifts of life: the effect of knowledge, attitudes, and altruism on behavior and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation

Much of the limited literature on organ donation has focused on the demographic and psychographic profiles of people who are willing to become organ donors. More information about the relationship of attitudes, values, knowledge, and actual behavior among adults is needed if targeted communication campaigns promoting organ donation are to succeed. The results of a mail survey of 798 adults sampled (via stratified random sampling procedures) from two local sites of a national corporation suggest that attitudes toward donation, knowledge about organ donation, altruism, and perceived social norms are significantly associated with both actual behavior (having signed an organ donor card) and behavioral intent (among non-donors) to sign a card in the future. These findings support the major models of organ donation willingness, especially those advanced by Horton and Horton (1991) and Kopfman (1994). This study also advances current knowledge of organ donation willingness by 1) using a large, relatively diverse population of adults rather than relying on a student sample; and 2) focusing on specific knowledge barriers that distinguish donors from non-donors.     

Signing cards,saving lives: an evaluation of the worksite organ donation promotion project

The desperate need for organ donors in the United States could be filled if every person eligible became an organ donor. Unfortunately, few organ donation campaigns exist, and fewer still have been evaluated empirically. This study has two objectives: to describe a worksite organ donation campaign and test campaign effects, and to test the Model of Behavioral Willingness to Donate Organs. Results of the campaign evaluation demonstrate that the worksite campaign was successful in increasing knowledge, favorable attitudes toward organ donation, behavioral intent to sign an organ donor card, actual rates of signed organ donor cards, and the willingness to talk to family members about the decision to donate organs. Results of path analyses produced mixed results with regard to model testing. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

African-Americans’ perceptions of organ donation: ‘simply boils down to mistrust!’

Five focus groups were conducted to better understand African-American adults’ (N?=?62) perceptions of organ donation. Applying the health belief model, results revealed that participants generally were aware of the need for organ donors and felt susceptible to needing a transplant in the future. Additionally, the number of perceived barriers greatly outweighed the number of perceived benefits to organ donation. Several novel barriers to organ donation, not currently identified in the literature, arose during focus group discussions, alluding to a larger source of mistrust among African-Americans. In respect to self-efficacy, participants’ responses further delineated the distinction between task and decisional efficacy. The results are discussed with an emphasis on how the current findings compare and contrast with previous work, as well as a focus on the practical implications for targeted organ donation campaigns aimed at African-American communities.     

A Normative Approach to Shaping College Students' Attitudes Toward Organ Donation

This study tested the effects of normative influence on increasing college students' attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about organ and tissue donation (OTD). It was hypothesized that students would look to their peers (referent group) in forming their own attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred thirty-nine (N = 339) participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: (1) control group; (2) general referent/normative message group; (3) specific referent/normative message group; (4) general referent/counternormative message group; and (5) specific referent/counternormative message group. An interaction effect was predicted between message type (normative > counternormative) and attributed message source (specific referent > general referent). Students reported highly favorable attitudes toward OTD, moderate-to-high levels of intentions to become organ donors and willingness to communicate about OTD. The hypothesis that participants within the normative message condition would report more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about OTD compared to participants within the counternormative message condition was supported for participants' willingness to communicate about OTD. The second hypothesis that participants within the specific referent condition would express more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate was rejected.     

Examining the Decision to Talk with Family About Organ Donation: Applying the Theory of Motivated Information Management

Research on organ donation suggests a strong association between family discussions about the issue and final organ donor status. However, very few studies have examined the factors that influence individuals’ willingness to talk directly to their family about this topic or the impact of these discussions. This investigation provides a partial test of a newly developed theory of information management to better understand the processes of family discussions about organ donation. Results from two studies generally support the utility of the theory in this context, suggest ways in which organ donation campaigns may improve their effectiveness, and recommend future directions for researchers in this area. Moreover, the data show differences across ethnic groups that support and extend past work in this area.     

The Relationship between Narrative Content Variation,Affective and Cognitive Reactions,and a Person's Willingness to Sign an Organ Donor Card

This study predicted that variations in the content of a narrative organ donor appeal (i.e., the age of the donor, the age of the person whose life was saved, the donor's cause of death, and the number of people whose lives were saved) would have a differential impact on a person's affective and cognitive reactions to that message, which would in turn influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card. Two hundred sixty-eight individuals who had not signed an organ donor card previously read one of several narratives and then answered a series of questions designed to measure their attitudes toward signing an organ donor card. These data revealed that how a person dies (accident vs natural causes) and the number of people who are saved through organ donation indirectly influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card with vividness, sympathy, and happiness acting as mediating variables. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

An Experimental Investigation of Social Identification on College Student Organ Donor Decisions

This investigation examined whether persuasive organ donation messages that target individuals’ identification with a salient social group will be more effective in encouraging these individuals to become organ donors than will information-only persuasive messages. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of two pro-organ donation messages, both of which included basic information about organ donation (need, number of registered donors, etc.) while one also targeted social identity. Findings indicate that individuals exposed to a social identification message were more likely to click a link that allowed them to officially register as organ donors. These results offer support for the utility of social identification as a health communication campaign strategy for increasing organ donation.     

Special Section Introduction: Best Practices in Risk and Crisis Communication

There is a substantial gap between those people in the United States who identify as being favorable toward organ donation (~90%) and those registered as donors (~30%). A growing body of evidence suggests Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices are effective sites for facilitating higher organ donor registration rates on a national scale. The goal of the current study was to determine the utility and sustainability of a message immediacy approach, which draws from theoretical concepts such as priming and cues to action. Message immediacy requires individuals be: (a) exposed to a message that prompts an action, (b) in an environment where a prescribed action or behavior can be enacted, and (c) favorable toward the promoted behavior or action. Thirty-four Michigan counties, divided into three implementation groups, received campaigns in October (Group 1), November (Group 2), and December (Group 3) of 2009. Registration rates for three to six months after campaign implementation indicate that the on-site message prompts almost doubled registration rates in DMV offices. Additionally, preliminary cost-effectiveness evidence suggests message immediacy offers a relatively inexpensive campaign strategy.     

The Effectiveness of High- and Low-Intensity Worksite Campaigns to Promote Organ Donation: The Workplace Partnership for Life

This study describes a worksite project designed to promote organ donation while testing the effectiveness of low-intensity (media-only) campaigns compared to high intensity campaigns (media+interpersonal communication), which incorporated on-site visits. All campaigns lasted 10 weeks. A total of 45 companies participated in the project, 15 in each quasi-experimental condition. Companies were counterbalanced by size of organization and industry type. Compared to the control condition, high-intensity worksite campaigns led to a six-percentage point increase in signed donor registrations while low-intensity campaigns led to a three-percentage-point increase. Both forms of worksite campaigns led to increases in attitudes, knowledge and perceived subjective norms from pretest to posttest when compared to control sites. At the same time, worksite campaigns served to significantly reduce individual-level barriers shown to be related to donation, such as medical mistrust and desire to maintain bodily integrity.     

Enhancing Communication Interventions and Evaluations through Communication Design

Communication design is first and foremost about creating, engineering, or critiquing approaches to communication that achieve specific goals or values. A design approach acts as an integrative perspective for finding the relevance of theory to a specific site of intervention. Communication design processes are illustrated through work on ombuds processes and organ donation campaigns. This research highlights four propositions related to communication design. First, design should be about both creation and critique. Second, design is complementary to, and strengthens, theory (and vice versa). Third, design can be both unique to an intervention or context and iterative from previous designs. Finally, design helps us uncover unexpected and unintended consequences, uncovering hidden properties of communication and leading to opportunities for modifying and correcting communication practices. These unintended consequences and other design successes and failures provide opportunities for learning and creating better systems. In these ways, a commitment to design processes strengthens both our research and our practice of communication across a variety of communication contexts and across different levels of communication.     

Examining Differences in Predictors of African American,Caucasian, and Latino Young Adults’ Intentions to Register as an Organ Donor

To date, African Americans and Latinos consent to organ donation at lower rates than Caucasians and are disproportionately represented on transplant waiting lists. However, limited work has investigated racial differences in predictors of organ donation registration. In this study, we examined racial differences in the antecedents of African American, Caucasian, and Latino young adults’ registration intentions using the theory of planned behavior, the noncognitive model, and perceived realism. Non-donors (N = 307) were recruited in a stratified random telephone survey. Results indicate that for African Americans, subjective norm, bodily integrity, and medical mistrust were the strongest predictors of registration intention. For Caucasians, attitude and subjective norm arose as key determinants of registration intention. For Latinos, attitude, subjective norm, and medical mistrust were the strongest predictors of registration intention. Consistent evidence for the independent predictive validity of perceived realism was also documented. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, as well as avenues for future research.     

An Exploration of Transportation and Psychological Reactance in Organ Donation PSAs

The present study expands on prior work on the use of narratives in persuasive communication by examining students’ (N = 201) reactions to six organ donation public service announcements (PSAs). Reactions to the type of appeal, donor-focused or recipient-focused, were also explored. Results indicated that being immersed in the PSA was positively associated with message reactions and negatively associated with threats to overall freedom of choice when deciding whether or not to become an organ donor. Those perceived threats partially mediated the relationship between immersion into the story of the PSA and message reactions, such that increased threats were associated with reduced message reactions. Individuals exposed to the recipient-focused appeals were more interested in the narrative of the PSAs than those exposed to donor-focused appeals. Results are discussed in the context of future message and campaign development.     

Closing Gaps in International Knowledge and Participation: News Attention,Online Expression,and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake

The effects of international news have been relatively underexamined despite evidence that socioeconomic-based gaps in knowledge and participation tend to be the widest for foreign news. This study investigated international news use, online expression, foreign affairs knowledge, and monetary donations in the context of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Regression analysis of national survey data found that high levels of attention to news about the disaster narrowed the knowledge gap for foreign news questions. Also, attention to news about the earthquake was the strongest predictor of monetary donation to the relief effort after controls and was more than twice as likely as income to predict donation. Three measures of online expression (exchanging information about the Haiti earthquake via social media website, e-mail, and text message) also produced positive independent associations with donation, and produced a complementary effect with news attention when interaction terms were considered.     

内外生视角下虚拟社区用户知识创新行为激励因素研究

[目的/意义]探讨虚拟社区中用户知识创新行为激励因素，有助于进一步了解用户知识创新行为动机，对提升虚拟社区知识交流和知识创新提供参考和建议。[方法/过程]从"内生激励"和"外生激励"的双重情境出发，整合计划行为理论、期望激励理论和虚拟社区感知因素对计划行为理论模型进行修订，通过问卷调查收集数据并进行实证检验。[结果/结论]分析结果表明：虚拟社区感中的成员感、影响力和知识自我效能正向影响"利己"知识创新意愿；主观规范和团体规范与"利他"知识创新意愿呈正相关；虚拟社区互动环境对"利他"知识创新意愿与知识源创新、新问题新想法的开发之间有显著调节作用；"利己"知识创新意愿、"利他"知识创新意愿均正向影响知识源创新与新问题新想法的开发，且"利己"知识创新意愿的影响强度高于"利他"知识创新意愿。     

An Examination of Message Elaboration as a Moderator of Psychological Reactance

The current study advances the literature on psychological reactance theory by examining the moderating role of message elaboration on the reactance process. Participants (N = 512) were randomly assigned to a message condition (freedom-threatening vs. non-freedom-threatening language) in a between-subjects quasi-experimental design. Message elaboration was not manipulated but rather varied naturally. Two topics were examined (energy conservation and organ donation). Results demonstrated that freedom-threatening language was positively associated with perceived freedom threat for both topics. No interaction effect of message elaboration and freedom-threatening language on perceived freedom threat was observed for either topic. Findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical and practical contributions of the current study.     

理性与偏差视角下在线问答社区用户知识付费意愿影响因素构型研究

[目的/意义] 用户知识付费行为是受多种因素协同影响的复杂决策过程,探究免费知识获取情况下用户知识付费意愿影响因素的联合作用,对深入理解用户知识付费行为和促进付费问答社区可持续发展具有重要意义。[方法/过程] 基于现状偏差理论和理性选择理论构建影响用户知识付费意愿的潜在变量,运用模糊集的定性比较分析方法分析变量间的非对称多重并发因果关系,探讨知识付费意愿的构型。[结果/结论] 研究发现,在免费信息获取渠道存在的情况下,付费问答社区用户知识付费意愿是理性和偏见层面的多因素相互作用产生的结果,感知收益是高程度知识付费意愿最为关键的因素,个人免费观念是低程度知识付费意愿的重要影响因素。从条件组合来看,存在影响知识付费意愿的4种构型,根据对构型结果的分析提出促进用户知识付费的针对性策略。     

虚拟社区知识共享行为影响因素的实证研究

知识共享是知识管理的一个必要过程。随着信息技术和互联网技术的发展,虚拟社区成为网民交流信息和获取知识的重要手段。如何鼓励个人在虚拟社区共享自己的知识,并帮助其他社区成员分享知识是一个重要的问题。在共享意愿的基础上,通过构建研究模型讨论了虚拟社区知识共享的影响因素。实证研究结果表明:自我效能、结果预期和共享意愿对虚拟社区成员的知识共享行为有显著的正向影响。     

加拿大大学图书馆捐赠政策调查与启示

研究加拿大大学图书馆捐赠政策,可以为我国大学图书馆捐赠政策的制定与完善提供借鉴。搜集18所大学共19份捐赠政策,采用网络调查和邮件调查法分析政策的制定状况、政策内容,发现加拿大大学图书馆捐赠政策的制定具有严谨性、动态性特点,政策内容具有一致性、全面性、规范性、合法性特点。鉴于此,我国大学图书馆应重视捐赠政策的制定与修订、提供对多种捐赠类型的指导、完善捐赠流程及规范各流程操作、设置捐赠税收优惠说明、明确图书馆与捐赠者的权责。     

移动互联网环境下产学研协同创新隐性知识共享影响因素实证研究

[目的/意义]移动互联网环境下产学研协同创新隐性知识共享影响因素的分析,对推动产学研各方更好地利用移动互联网资源进行知识共享,加快产学研协同创新科技成果转化具有重要意义.[方法/过程]在总结和归纳文献的基础上,构建产学研协同创新隐性知识共享意愿和隐性知识共享行为之间的影响因素概念模型,运用实证研究方法中的结构方程对构建的模型进行检验.[结果/结论]隐性知识共享内容、移动互联网环境、移动互联网技术对隐性知识共享意愿具有正向影响,隐性知识共享意愿与移动互联网技术能够直接正向影响隐性知识共享行为.