Dynamic norms and organ donation

Abstract

We conduct three experiments with over 1600 subjects to examine the impact of dynamic norms on organ donation. We find that dynamic norms (low‐prevalence behaviors framed as increasing in popularity over time) significantly increase organ donor registration, and that this effect is mainly driven by dynamic trends (prevalence of behaviors with a growth trend). The positive effect of dynamic trends on organ donor registration is better than that of combined norms (low‐descriptive but high‐injunctive behaviors). The underlying mechanism may be future norm perceptions and moral emotions (elevation). Our paper presents a novel and effective strategy to increase organ donation.