Reciprocity and Need in Posthumous Organ Donation The Mediating Role of Moral Emotions

• Published in: Social psychological & personality science Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 387 - 394
• Main Authors: Stijnen, Mandy M. N., Dijker, Anton J. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2011; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Biological organs; Blood & organ donations; Donors; Emotions; Forgiveness; Guilt; Moral aspects; Morality; Prosocial behavior; Reciprocity; Sympathy; moral emotions; need; organ donation; helping; reciprocity
• ISSN: 1948-5506; 1948-5514
• DOI: 10.1177/1948550610393749

The effects of need and reciprocity on prosocial behavior have been primarily studied in separate research domains. A distinction between helping those in need and reciprocity is also made in current discussions on how to motivate posthumous organ donation, contrasting the help of needing patients with an equal contribution to a common pool of organs and effective measures against free riding. The authors examined the interactive effects of need and reciprocity on moral emotions relevant for helping (e.g., sympathy, guilt, moral anger) in an experiment in which participants imagined donating or not donating their organs to patients who were or were not willing to donate themselves and who differed in the need for an organ. They found that lack of reciprocity reduced the intensity of certain moral emotions (e.g., sympathy, guilt) but only under low need. High need appeared to arouse forgiveness for free riding. Implications for attempts to increase the number of registered organ donors are discussed.