Abstract
The positive effect of social information on nudging prosocial behavior is context dependent. Understanding how sensitive intervention outcomes are to changes in the choice context is essential for policy design, especially in times of great uncertainty, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The present paper explores the effectiveness of social information in changing voluntary blood donation intention in two contexts: before and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. In addition to the dimension of context, information content and its source are also important. Using a survey administered to 1,116 participants, we conducted an intertemporal randomized-controlled experiment to systematically analyze how information can effectively nudge the intention to donate blood. Compared with content featuring blood donors' commendation information, blood users' demand information is found to have a stronger nudging effect. An official information source has a greater influence on participants' donation intention than an unofficial source. Furthermore, our analysis of two waves of experimental data (i.e., before and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic) shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has further enhanced the nudging effect of blood users' demand information and official information sources. These findings provide a theoretical basis and policy recommendations for relevant institutions to develop effective blood donation campaign strategies.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a substantial challenge to global human well-being
Our results show that blood donation intention is higher among participants who had been exposed to the blood users’ demand information treatment, as compared to those who had been exposed to the blood donors’ commendation information treatment
The results indicate that participants who were presented with information about blood users’ demand were more willing to donate blood (M = 3.763) than those who were presented with the information about blood donors’ commendation (M = 2.770)2, F[1,1108] = 163.738, p < 0.0005, η2 = 0.129
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a substantial challenge to global human well-being. It has been creating major disruptions at all levels of healthcare provision (Stanworth et al, 2020). Maintaining an adequate and consistent supply of blood to support ongoing needs is critical, as blood transfusion is essential for the operation of modern health services. Given safety and ethical concerns, non-government organizations, such as the World Health Organization, advocate donating blood, “the gift of life,” in a voluntary and unremunerated manner (World Health Organization, 2015). The number of active and regular blood donors is rarely able to meet the clinical demands for blood. There is a high demand for the identification of appropriate interventions to promote voluntary and unpaid blood donation intention and behavior
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