The Social Contagion of Blood Donations: Sustaining Repeated Prosocial Behaviour

Abstract

Repeated prosocial behaviour – behaviour that benefits unknown others and is individually costly – is crucial for the supply of many public goods. Experimental studies show that social mechanisms are pivotal for sustaining prosocial behaviour over time. One such mechanism is social contagion, which we broadly define as an individual changing their behaviour in response to the behaviour of others. This study examines to what extent and through what individual-level mechanisms social contagion affects repeated blood donation behaviour, an ideal-typical manifestation of real-world prosocial behaviour. We draw on longitudinal survey and register data on the Dutch blood donor population from 2007 to 2014 (N=15,090), and address the potential endogeneity of the donation behaviour of others by using panel data models and an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that a one-unit increase in the number of donations per inhabitant in the focal donor’s neighbourhood is associated with a ten percent increase in the donor’s blood donations. Exploratory analysis attributes this to social contagion within donor couples. Social contagion is not mediated by normative or informational social influence. Instead, it exerts a direct influence on repeated blood donations, and should thus be considered in theory and practice concerned with repeated real-world prosocial behaviour.

Did you donate? Talking about donations predicts compliance with solicitations for donations

“…One strategy to achieve that may be group-donation programmes [ 60 ], where donors form groups that they can communicate and donate with–a promising area for future research. Such groups should create some actual feeling of relatedness, as previous studies have shown that social influence is at work among closely related individuals [ 17 , 61 , 62 ], but not among distant peers [ 63 ]. Finally, promoting communication about donations might be particularly effective for donors in early stages of their donor career, since their behaviour is more malleable than that of very experienced donors.…”

Did you donate? Talking about donations predicts compliance with solicitations for donations.

“…One strategy to achieve that may be group-donation programmes (Sun et al, 2019), where donors form groups that they can communicate and donate with. Such groups should create some actual feeling of relatedness, as previous studies have shown that social influence is at work among closely related individuals (Bruhin et al, 2020;Meyer & Tripodi, 2021;Schröder et al, 2021), but not among distant peers (Goette & Tripodi, 2022). Finally, promoting communication about donations might be particularly effective for donors in early stages of their donor career, since their behaviour is more malleable than that of very experienced donors.…”

Blood, it runs in the family: Intergenerational transmission of blood-donor behaviour

“…Blood-donor identity of the parent. Based on the DIS-I questionnaire, Schröder et al (2021) constructed blood donor identity by considering the answers to the following questions evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 signifies "completely disagree" and 5 "completely agree": "Being a blood/plasma donor is an important part of who I am." "Being a blood donor means more to me than just giving blood."…”

“…Thus, by supporting the transfer of the blood-donor behaviour from one generation of donors to another, blood banks may be able to ensure the long-term stability of the blood supply. This approach may be most relevant for blood banks whose strategy focuses on maintaining the loyalty of the existent donors rather than recruiting new donors as children can replace their parents in the donor pool and being a member of a donor network (family) is positively associated with blood donation (Schröder et. al., 2021).…”