Altruistic and Warm-Glow Motivations: Differentiating First Time From Repeat Donors

Ferguson, Eamonn; Lawrence, Claire

Abstract

The conversion rate of 1st time donors to their 2nd and 3rd donation is low creating a significant problem to transfusion services. We hypothesise that feelings of warm-glow associated with donating blood, contribute to the differentiation between 1st time donors from those making 2nd or 3rd donations. To test this free-response motivations were examined a sample of 309 blood donors, categorised as 1st time donors and two categories of repeat donor: (1) those making their 2nd or 3rd donation and (2) those making their 4th or subsequent donation. We identified 33 categories of motivation for donating blood were identified. Pure altruism and warm-glow were mentioned in the top ten most frequent motivations. While pure-altruism did not differentiate 1st time from the repeat donors, warm-glow did, with those with those making their 2nd or 3rd donations being 5 time more likely to express warm-glow and those making their 4th or subsequent donations 3 times more likely. These results add to the growing body of evidence that regular blood donors are more likely to express impure altruistic motives and that focusing on warm-glow interventions may offer the possibility to enhance the retention of blood donors.

Citation

Ferguson, E., & Lawrence, C. (2019). Altruistic and Warm-Glow Motivations: Differentiating First Time From Repeat Donors. TPM: Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 26(4), 639-651. https://doi.org/10.4473/TPM26.4.10

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 25, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 6, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2020
• Journal: TPM - Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1972-6325
• Publisher: Centro per l'Informazione Scientifica Economica Sociale
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 639-651
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4473/TPM26.4.10
• Keywords: Blood donation; Warm-glow; Altruism; Helping
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2395963
• Publisher URL: https://www.tpmap.org/altruistic-and-warm-glow-motivations-differentiating-first-time-from-repeat-donors/