People who donate blood play a crucial role in enabling life-saving transfusions and various medical treatments for other people. This study explores why such a small group of individuals consistently participates in this pro-social behavior, even when it comes at a personal cost. The focus is on examining the influence of social contagion within neighborhoods—how people change their behavior based on the actions of others—on the frequency of repeated blood donation. The research uses data from surveys and registers covering a representative sample of blood donors in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2014.
The full article of the study can be found here, or you can just read the highlights:
- Blood donations are affected by social contagion within neighbourhoods.
- This effect can likely be attributed to social contagion among donor couples.
- Social contagion is not explained by normative and informational social influence.
- Blood banks could target retention efforts to groups and couples.
Article
The social contagion of prosocial behaviour: How neighbourhood blood donations influence individual donation behaviour. Joris M. Schröder, Eva-Maria Merz, Bianca Suanet & Pamala Wiepking
留言