Blood donor behaviour, motivations and the need for a systematic cross-cultural perspective: the example of moral outrage and health and non-health based philanthropy across seven countries

Ferguson, Eamonn; Dorner, Laszlo; France, Christopher R.; France, Janis L.; Masser, Barbara; Lam, Micheal; Marta, Elena; Alfieri, Sara; Huis in �t Veld, Elisabeth; Scerri, Josianne

Abstract

Background: Blood donation is a prosocial altruistic act that is motived by the mechanisms that underlie altruism (e.g., warm-glow, reciprocity, fairness/trust). Because there is consistent evidence that altruism and its mechanisms show cross-cultural variability, in the present paper we make the case for a cross-cultural perspective in blood donor research.
Methods: We analyse a subset of variables from a larger study, with samples drawn from seven countries (England, Malta, the Netherlands, Australia, USA, Hungary, Italy: average N per country = 282). This subset of variables focuses on health (organ donor registration) and non-health (volunteering, donating money) philanthropy, family traditions of helping, and moral outrage as predictors of blood donor status.
Results: We show two cross-cultural universals: 1) organ donor registration in opt-in countries is positively associated with blood donor status and 2) non-health philanthropy is generally unrelated to blood donor status. We also show two country specific effects: 1) a family tradition for helping is associated with blood donor status in Italy only and 2) moral outrage is a predictor only in the USA.
Conclusions: We contend that these findings provide proof of principle why a cross-cultural perspective on blood donor behaviour is needed.

Citation

Ferguson, E., Dorner, L., France, C. R., France, J. L., Masser, B., Lam, M., …Scerri, J. (2018). Blood donor behaviour, motivations and the need for a systematic cross-cultural perspective: the example of moral outrage and health and non-health based philanthropy across seven countries. ISBT Science Series, 13(4), 375-383. https://doi.org/10.1111/voxs.12471

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 3, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 12, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Deposit Date: Oct 10, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 13, 2019
• Journal: ISBT Science Series
• Print ISSN: 1751-2816
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 375-383
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/voxs.12471
• Keywords: Blood donation, altruism, cross-culture
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1158241
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/voxs.12471
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the article , which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/voxs.12471. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.