CHAMPAIGN, IL — Emotional radio ads — featuring personal stories of happy organ transplant recipients and sad patients languishing on waiting lists — increase support for organ donation among non-donor listeners and reduce anxiety. New research suggests that it may be effective in overcoming some of the barriers to participation in donor registries.
More than 570 African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian adults who are not registered as organ donors were asked to participate in a 60-second radio ad in which a young mother expresses joy after receiving a heart transplant, or sadness in which a young mother appears. I heard an ad that evoked. She was on the waiting list for her double lung transplant, but she feared it might not arrive in time to save her life due to organ shortages.
Emotional messages that evoked happiness or sadness affected many listeners, but the effects varied widely, the researchers found.
“In 75% of our models, happiness was positively associated with more persuasive ads, while in 50% of our models, sadness made ads more persuasive.” says. communication Professor brian quick from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign co-authored the study with James Madison University communication professor Tobias Reynolds Tyrus and University of Iowa graduate students Minhei Zhang and Ethan Morrow.
Before hearing one of the messages, study participants were surveyed to determine whether they held any of four common beliefs that prevent people from signing up for organ donor registries. Some non-donors were concerned about their physical integrity, believing that their bodies needed to remain intact after death in order to enjoy the afterlife; Some people believe that this will cause a jinx that will lead to an early death.
Therefore, people who distrust medical institutions suspect that doctors will prioritize the health of their patients and instead choose to let patients die in order to procure organs.
And then there's the “uncomfortable” element. Some people are disgusted by the thought of medical procedures that may be performed on their bodies to remove organs after death, says several research projects investigating donor recruitment messaging strategies and different methods. Mr. Quick said. Beliefs and barriers between social groups.
Doctors are struggling to identify effective messaging strategies to overcome the psychological barriers identified in the study and attract more donor registrants, Quick said. Organ donation registration rates are particularly low among African Americans and Hispanics, according to the Organ Sharing Network.
According to UNOS data, more than 103,000 people are currently on the national waiting list for organ transplants, and 17 people die every day due to a lack of available organs.
In the United States, transplant waiting lists disproportionately include African Americans and Hispanics. African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, but about 29% of waitlist candidates. Similarly, Hispanics, who make up more than 18% of the U.S. population, account for 21% of waitlist candidates, according to U.S. Census Bureau population data and Organ Procurement and Transplant Network waitlist data.
“We found that happiness was associated with greater advertising persuasiveness, especially among non-donors who were more distrustful of medicine,” Quick said. “This finding is important for future message design. Future donor recruitment campaigns could use happiness to highlight that recipients' lives were saved and significantly improved after transplantation.” It should be prioritized.”
The researchers found that ads that evoked feelings of sadness were more persuasive when non-donor listeners were more afraid of being jinxed if they became registered donors or if they became distrustful of medical care. did.
But for people who view organ donation as unpleasant or who are concerned about maintaining the integrity of the body after death, sadness did not make the ads more persuasive, the data showed. Indicated.
While the personal story of a young mother on the waiting list who risked death without a double lung transplant struck a chord with many listeners, the team told campaign designers: It warned people to “handle with caution” any provocative messages that use “strong force”. He appealed for “grief” in order to encourage organ donation “lest it (the advertisement) seem blatantly manipulated.”
“Our results provide clear messaging recommendations for those working to promote organ donor registration,” Quick said. “In other words, when reaching a distrustful audience, telling the story of an organ recipient is likely to elicit a sense of well-being, which in turn increases the persuasiveness of the ad among this skeptical audience.” We hope that together we can use this knowledge to improve our campaigns to educate the public about organ donation.”
