Blood donation is an act of benevolence rather than altruism.

OBJECTIVES: Blood donation is described as an archetypal altruistic behavior, and recruitment/retention campaigns emphasize altruism. Here, a benevolence hypothesis for blood donation (both the donor and recipient benefit) rather than the altruism hypothesis (only the recipient gains) is proposed. DESIGN: Three United Kingdom-based studies contrasted benevolence and altruism: (a) a 6-month prospective study of blood donor behavior (Study 1: N = 957), (b) a cross-sectional study of blood donors' intentions (Study 2: N = 333), and (c) an experimental study examining the effect of benevolent and altruistic messages on willingness to help across high- and low-cost helping behaviors for committed and noncommitted blood donors (Study 3: N = 200). MAIN OUTCOME: Donor behavior and intentions-willingness. MEASURES: Beliefs in personal and societal benefit (Time 1) and actual donations (Time 2) were assessed in Study 1; beliefs in benevolence, altruism, hedonism, and kinship along with donation intentions were assessed in Study 2; and empathy, donor commitment, and willingness to donate blood, money, fund-raise, and staff a telephone helpline were assessed in Study 3. RESULTS: Beliefs in personal rather than societal benefit predicted actual future donation. A path model showed that only beliefs in benevolence were associated with intentions to donate. Committed blood donors were more willing to donate blood when exposed to a benevolent message rather than an altruistic one. This effect was not observed for other forms of helping. CONCLUSIONS: The benevolence hypothesis is supported, suggesting that blood donor motivation is partly selfish. Blood donation campaigns should focus on benevolent rather than purely altruistic messages.     

Asking questions changes behavior: mere measurement effects on frequency of blood donation.

OBJECTIVE: This research examined the impact of completing a questionnaire about blood donation on subsequent donation behavior among a large sample of experienced blood donors. DESIGN: Participants (N=4672) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition that received a postal questionnaire measuring cognitions about donation or a control condition that did not receive a questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of registrations at blood drives and number of successful blood donations were assessed using objective records both 6 months and 12 months later. RESULTS: Findings indicated that, compared to control participants, the mean frequency of number of registrations at blood drives among participants in the experimental group was 8.6% greater at 6 months (p<.0.007), and was 6.4% greater at 12 months (p<.035). Significant effects were also observed for successful blood donations at 6 months (p<.001) and 12 months (p<.004). CONCLUSION: These findings provide the first evidence that the mere measurement is relevant to promoting consequential health behaviors. Implications of the research for intervention evaluation are discussed.     

Interaction Effects in the Theory of Planned Behavior: The Interplay of Self-Identity and Past Behavior

This research used a revised theory of planned behavior (TPB) model, which incorporated self-identity and past behavior—and the interaction between these constructs—in order to improve the model's predictive power in relation to consumer behavior (purchasing one's preferred beer). At Time 1, respondents ( N  = 108) completed measures of attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, self-identity, past behavior, and intentions. Behavior was assessed 1 week later. All predictors were positively related to intentions. Self-identity and past behavior interacted to influence intentions: Self-identity had a stronger influence on intentions at low, rather than high, levels of past behavior. Intentions and past behavior were predictive of Time 2 behavior. These findings emphasize the need to consider identity issues in the TPB.     

Social Cognitions and Past Behavior as Predictors of Behavioral Intentions Related to Cardiovascular Health

The present study assessed the usefulness of social cognitions shared by several health behavior models for predicting behavioral intentions regarding cardiovascular health, independent of past/current behavior. Over 800 adolescents were administered a cross-sectional survey measuring intentions (regarding cigarette use, fat consumption, physical exercise), social cognitions (severity, vulnerability, benefits, self-efficacy), and past/current behavior. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for past/current behavior, showed a varied predictive profile across behavioral intentions. Severity estimates predicted intended cigarette use and fat consumption, while perceived benefits predicted intended physical activity. However, self-efficacy predicted intentions consistently. Collectively, social cognitions contributed an additional 0.8%, 2.5%, and 11. 6%, of the variance in smoking, dietary fat, and exercise intentions, over and above past/current behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are considered.     

Romantic Ideals,Fear of Negative Implications,and the Practice of Safe Sex1

The present study examined how young heterosexuals’ beliefs about the power of condom use to destroy their romantic ideals and to lead to negative implications affected both their intentions and their actual behavior of using and discussing the use of condoms with sexual partners. The extra predictive power gained from considering these beliefs, in addition to subjects’ beliefs concerning whether condoms reduced their risk of contracting HIV, was examined within the context of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action. One-hundred-and-two sexually active heterosexual students participated in the study. At the first wave of data collection, beliefs concerning the potential of condoms to reduce risk, to destroy romance, and to lead to negative implications were assessed, as were norms and intentions. Measures of actual behavior were obtained three months later for both regular and casual/new partners. The results of the study indicated that norms and beliefs concerning the risk-reduction effects of condom use were the primary predictors of intentions to use condoms. Subjects’ beliefs concerning whether condoms destroyed their romantic ideals or led to negative implications did not influence their intentions with casual/new partners, although emotional concerns played a minor role in determining intentions with regular partners. In contrast, these emotional concerns had a major impact in determining actual behavior for all partner types. Although intentions partially predicted behavior, beliefs about reducing risk, destroying romance and fear of negative implications had strong and direct influences on behavior, especially in the case of casual/new partners. Additional analyses revealed gender differences in the determinants of behavior. Females, in contrast to males, were less able to act in accord with their attitudes about using condoms to reduce their risk of contracting HIV, and were also less able to act in conformity with their subjective norms with less well-known partners. Although both males and females were similarly affected by more emotional concerns with new and/or casual partners, gender differences occurred in how these emotional factors affected behavior with regular partners. Implications of the finding that behavior is determined to a large extent by more emotional concerns that are not factored in ahead of time when formulating intent are discussed.     

Predictors of Young People's Charitable Intentions to Donate Money: An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective

An extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to predict young people's intentions to donate money to charities in the future. Students (N = 210; 18–24 years) completed a questionnaire assessing their attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), moral obligation, past behavior, and intentions toward donating money. Regression analyses revealed that the extended TPB explained 61% of the variance in intentions to donate money. Attitude, PBC, moral norm, and past behavior predicted intentions, representing future targets for charitable‐giving interventions.     

Memory for the Experience of Donating Blood: Just How Bad Was It?

A field experiment investigated the accuracy of blood donor's memory for the emotions they experienced during blood donation. Compared to what they reported at the time of donation, the donors remembered a greater contrast between predonation and postdonation emotions. The donors also remembered experiencing more anxiety than they actually did. The bias in memory was especially pronounced among relatively inexperienced donors who had not been asked to report on their emotion prior to their actual donations. The memory boas was also related to donors' attitudes at the time of recall. Donors' intentions to donate blood again were reliably predicted by a combination of attitude and emotion measures. Discussion considers a potential intervention for improving donor return rates.     

The ethical limits in expanding living donor transplantation

The past decade has witnessed the emergence of novel methods to increase the number of living donors. Although such programs are not likely to yield high volumes of organs, some transplant centers have gone to great lengths to establish one or more of them. I discuss some of the ethical and policy issues raised by five such programs: (1) living-paired and cascade exchanges; (2) unbalanced living-paired exchanges; (3) list-paired exchanges; (4) nondirected donors; and (5) nondirected donors catalyzing cascade exchanges. I argue that living-paired and cascade exchanges are ethically sound, but will lead to only a few additional transplants. Unbalanced exchanges and list-paired exchanges raise ethical issues that should limit their permissibility. Nondirected donations can be ethically sound with adherence to strict eligibility criteria and fair allocation procedures. Nondirected donors catalyzing cascade exchanges can be ethically sound provided that individuals with blood types O and B are not made worse off.     

Alcohol Consumption and the Theory of Planned Behavior: An Examination of the Cognitive Mediation of Past Behaviorid

This study examined the predictive power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in explaining alcohol consumption in 3 prospective samples of students ( Ns = 178. 176. and 159). Generally, the TPB performed well. with attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC) explaining between 28% and 46% of the variability in intentions. Intentions and PBC explained between 12% and 50% of the variability in behavior. Measures of self-identity as a "drinker" and past behavior contributed to predictions of intentions over and above the contribution of attitudes. subjective norms. and PBC. Measures of past behavior but not self-identity consistently contributed to predictions of behavior over and above the contributions from intentions and PBC. The direct relationship between past behavior and intention and between past behavior and behavior (independent of the TPB variables or self-identity) could not be attributed to common method variance.     

Does Past Condom Use Moderate the Future Condom Use Intention-Behavior Relationship? Results from a Ghanaian Sample

Behavioral intention is an important predictor of actual behavior. Yet, people often fail to act on their intentions. This study used panel data to examine whether intention interacts with past behavior in determining future behavior. Young people in the Eastern Region of Ghana (N = 956, 495 = female, 461 = male) completed a structured self-administered questionnaire, assessing intentions to use condoms and past condom use behavior at Time 1, and future condom use behavior at Time 2. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that intentions to use condoms and past condom use behavior accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in future condom use behavior. In addition, past condom use moderated the future condom use intention–behavior relationship. These results demonstrate the usefulness of considering young people's past experiences with condoms in informing the design of condom use skills training. In other words, a condom use skills training intervention that uses the pedagogical approach of starting from the “known” to the “unknown” might benefit young Ghanaians.     

Harmful Ideas,The Structure and Consequences of Anti‐Semitic Beliefs in Poland

The harmfulness of anti‐Semitic beliefs is widely discussed in current political and legal debates (e.g., Cutler v. Dorn). At the same time, empirical studies of the psychological consequences of such beliefs are scarce. The present research is an attempt to explore the structure of contemporary anti‐Semitic beliefs in Poland—and to evaluate their predictive role in discriminatory intentions and behavior targeting Jews. Another aim was to determine dispositional, situational, and identity correlates of different forms of anti‐Semitic beliefs and behavior. Study 1, performed on a nation‐wide representative sample of Polish adults (N = 979), suggests a three‐factorial structure of anti‐Semitic beliefs, consisting of: (1) belief in Jewish conspiracy, (2) traditional religious anti‐Judaic beliefs, and (3) secondary anti‐Semitic beliefs, focusing on Holocaust commemoration. Of these three beliefs, belief in Jewish conspiracy was the closest antecedent of anti‐Semitic behavioral intentions. Study 2 (N = 600 Internet users in Poland) confirmed the three‐factor structure of anti‐Semitic beliefs and proved that these beliefs explain actual behavior toward Jews in monetary donations. Both studies show that anti‐Semitic beliefs are related to authoritarian personality characteristics, victimhood‐based social identity, and relative deprivation.     

Looking forward to helping: The effects of prospection on prosocial intentions and behavior

Three experiments were conducted to further examine how prospection (i.e., thinking about the future) fosters prosociality. In Study 1 (n = 238), participants who wrote about the future expressed significantly stronger prosocial intentions than people who wrote about the past. In a similar study (n = 87), participants who wrote about the future were significantly more likely to behave prosocially than those who wrote about the past. In Study 3 (n = 203), mediational analyses revealed that prospection and optimism each predicted positive affect, which then predicted stronger prosocial intentions. These findings extend previous work by demonstrating that prospection enhances general prosocial intentions, that this effect extends to prosocial behavior, and that the effect is partially mediated by positive affect.     

The Theory of Planned Behavior and Breast Self-Examination: Distinguishing Between Perceived Control and Self-Efficacy

This paper reports an application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the prediction of breast self-examination (BSE) intentions and behavior. The study also considered the distinction between perceived control and self-efficacy within the TPB and the additional predictive utility of past behavior. A sample of 95 women completed questionnaires based on the TPB and were followed up at 1 month. Support for the distinction between perceived control and self-efficacy was provided by principal components analysis. The TPB was found to be highly predictive of intention to perform BSE and subsequent BSE behavior. Regression analyses revealed self-efficacy and attitude to be predictive of intention to perform BSE. Intention, in turn, was the sole predictor of BSE at 1-month follow-up. Past behavior was found to explain additional variance in intention, but not BSE behavior at 1-month follow-up. The results are discussed in relation to the conceptual status of the perceived behavioral control construct, and the practical implications of the results are highlighted.     

Internet Safety and the Silver Surfer: The Relationship Between Gist Reasoning and Adults' Risky Online Behavior

Currently, fewer older adults are online compared with younger generations. However, with many new initiatives aiming to significantly increase the number of older internet users, they will increasingly be exposed to potential victimisation from internet fraud, a fundamental issue affecting all adult internet users. Despite this, little research has examined online risk‐taking across the adult lifespan or adults' reasoning about risky online behaviors. Using fuzzy trace theory, we investigated adults' online risk‐taking behavior and intentions, and whether these behaviors were related to different ways of reasoning about risk, namely, gist reasoning (using qualitative, intuitive knowledge) and verbatim reasoning (using quantitative, specific knowledge). Participants (326 adults, 18–79 years old, M_age = 49.54 years) reported their past risk‐taking behavior, future online risk intentions, gist and verbatim reasoning about online risk, sensation seeking, and time spent online. Age was negatively correlated with past risk‐taking, time online, future risk intentions, and sensation seeking. However, time spent online was positively related to future risk intentions, suggesting that spending more time using the internet could lead individuals to take more risks. Increased verbatim reasoning predicted increased intentions to take online risks, while gist reasoning predicted reduced intentions to take risks online. Our findings extend online risk research applying fuzzy trace theory to adolescents and young adults and suggest that online safety training incorporating gist‐based reasoning strategies could benefit all adults and, in particular, older generations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring implementation intentions in the context of the theory of planned behavior

The usefulness of measuring implementation intentions in the context of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was explored among 112 Norwegian college students. They responded to a questionnaire measuring past behavior, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intentions, implementation intentions, and actual performance of regular exercising and recycling of drinking cartons. Implementation intentions were measured using five items relating to recycling and four items relating to exercise, which showed satisfactory internal consistencies. Consistent with the main prediction, the presence of implementation intentions was related to performing the two behaviors, although behavioral intentions were the strongest determinant for both behaviors. The results suggest that the TPB may benefit from inclusion of the concept of implementation intentions to provide a more complete understanding of the psychological process in which motivation is translated into action.     

Exploring the Generalization Process from Past Behavior to Predicting Future Behavior

Substantial evidence in social psychology documents that traits predict behavior. Research in behavioral economics establishes prior behavioral information—the actual behavior of another person in the past—influences future decision making, suggestive of the role of traits in guiding future behavior, but agnostic to the specific psychological mechanism. Yet the entire generalization process from past behavior to predicting future behavior has not been fully explored. Additionally, previous paradigms do not adequately dissociate prediction from explanation, and provide participants with trait information, or rely on participants to generate the appropriate trait. Here, we combine literature and experimental approaches in social psychology and behavioral economics to explore the generalization process from prior behavior that guides future decisions. Across three studies utilizing consequential economic game paradigms and online questionnaires, an initial group of participants (employees) played a time estimation game and a charity donations game before a second group of participants (employers) viewed the behavior of the first group, then decided whether to invest in employees in a trust game and rock guessing game. Although participants infer trait warmth and competence from the behavioral information in the first two games, estimates of normative behavior predicted investment decisions on the warmth‐relevant games better than trait inferences. These results dissociate generalizations guided by warmth and competence behavioral information, and question the extent to which traits always serve as heuristics to predict behavior. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Source Credibility and Message Framing on Exercise Intentions,Behaviors, and Attitudes: An Integration of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Prospect Theory1

This study examined the influence of source credibility and message framing on promoting physical exercise in university students. Participants were randomly assigned to reading a positively or negatively framed communication that was attributed to either a credible or a noncredible source. Exercise intentions and attitudes were measured immediately following the delivery of the communication and following a 2‐week delay. Exercise behavior was also measured following the delay. There were Source Frame interactions for the exercise intentions, exercise behaviors, and cognitive response/elaboration measures such that participants receiving a positively framed communication from a credible source elaborated more and reported more positive exercise intentions and behaviors than participants in the other conditions. The results of the present investigation indicate that it might be beneficial for health professionals to provide exercise‐related information stressing the benefits of participating in exercise, rather than the traditional fear appeals, to motivate clients to engage in regular physical exercise. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The role of identity in how whole‐blood donors reflect on and construct their future as a plasma donor

In the context of decreased demand for whole blood and increased demand for plasma‐derived products, donors in Australia are increasingly being asked to convert from whole‐blood to plasmapheresis donations. Plasmapheresis is a different type of donation to whole blood as the process takes longer and can be engaged in more frequently. What is unknown is whether whole‐blood donors view donating plasma as consistent with their donor identity and how they respond to the possibility of donating more frequently. To explore this, we undertook semistructured telephone interviews with 26 whole‐blood donors who had recently made their first plasma donation. Findings indicated that whereas donating plasma was viewed as a bigger ask than donating whole blood, the former was viewed as consistent with their identity as a donor because both behaviours were seen to benefit others and self and were located within the same institutional context. Donating plasma was an opportunity for donors to enhance their self‐concept as an altruistic giver. When contemplating their future donation behaviour, donors considered how their donor identity would fit alongside other salient roles. These findings have implications for how institutions can position their request of existing donors to give a different gift.     

Women,men, and condoms: attitudes and experiences of heterosexual college students

Little is known concerning gender and ethnic differences in attitudes about condoms or about the impact of attitudes on condom use. College students ( N = 393) rated many features of condoms. Overall, students were mildly positive about condoms, believing they offer effective protection but detract from sexual sensation. Both past condom use and future intentions to use condoms were higher among students with more favorable global attitudes toward condoms and more favorable specific beliefs about the interpersonal dynamics of condom use. Future intentions to use condoms were also associated with greater worry about sexually transmitted diseases and fewer previous sexual partners. Women were more favorable toward condoms than men. Gender differences also emerged in the predictors of condom use. Implications for assessing condom attitudes and for increasing condom use among young heterosexuals are discussed.