WOULD CHOOSING YOUR RECIPIENT INFLUENCE YOUR DECISION TO DONATE?
-
1
Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia
-
2
NSW Organ Tissue and Donation Service, Australia
Aim: Less than 30% of Australian’s have registered their intent to donate their organs after death. Further to this are minority groups within Australia, who have chronically low registration rates. Although no definitive link between same ethnicity organ donation and successful transplantation, the procedure does rely on donor and recipient genetic compatibility. In this study, the theory of psychological essentialism was used to investigate whether a relationship existed between belief in ethnic origin as a natural kind; that is when physical characteristics, and internal attributes of group members are associated with an inherent underlying quality, and preference for directed donation.
Method: Adults from the Punjabi and Australian community were invited to complete an online self-report questionnaire which investigated what was socially understood about organ donation, essentialist beliefs and the relationship between these beliefs and their preference for directed donation.
Results: Willingness to donate was similar in both samples however, actual registration for the Punjabi sample (23.5%) was much lower than the Australian sample (53.8%). Principal component analysis of the psychological essentialism scale yielded a 2 factor solution measuring radical essentialism and general similarities in the Punjabi sample, and a 1 factor solution in the Australian sample. For non-registered participants in both samples, essentialist perceptions were not significantly related to a preference for directed donation. However, a main effect of age on preference for directed donation was found in the Punjabi sample with young adults reporting a stronger preference for directed donation in comparison to middle aged adults
Conclusion: The study suggests that in the Punjabi sample there are generational differences in donation preferences. Young Punjabi adults reported they were more inclined to register than older Punjabi adults if they could preselect the characteristics of their recipient. Contrary to expectations, essentialist perceptions did not have a bearing on organ donation preference in both samples.
Keywords:
organ donation,
essentialism,
minority,
directed donation,
choice
Conference:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, 5 Oct - 6 Oct, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Research
Topic:
Psychology
Citation:
Singh
S,
Moloney
G and
Sutherland
M
(2017). WOULD CHOOSING YOUR RECIPIENT INFLUENCE YOUR DECISION TO DONATE?.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2017.72.00040
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
25 Sep 2017;
Published Online:
11 Dec 2017.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Gail Moloney, Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia, gail.moloney@scu.edu.au
Dr. Michael Sutherland, NSW Organ Tissue and Donation Service, Kogarah, NSW, Australia, michaelsutherland1@me.com