Willingness

Abstract

Health-related philanthropy is essential for biobanks. Nonetheless, little is known about the roles of personality and trust in particular with respect to participation in biobanking. In a sample of 600 Slovaks, the present study aimed to examine whether interpersonal trusting beliefs mediate the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and the willingness to participate in biobanking. The results showed that extraversion, agreeableness and open-mindedness were indirectly positively related to the willingness to participate in biobanking, while conscientiousness showed mixed results. Self-focused generalised trust, other-focused generalised trust, and trust in medical researchers appeared to be factors explaining these indirect relationships. The findings provide support for the theory of planned behaviour and can be applied in communication and recruitment strategies attempting to attract participants of biobanking.