How Perceived Similarity Moderates Sympathy and Pride Appeal in Organ Donation Messages

Organ transplantation is the only medical procedure that can save a person who is suffering from organ failure. However, the shortage of transplantable organs remains a universal problem. Although more than 90% of the America population supports the concept of organ donation, less than half are registered as donors.

An online experiment (N = 224) was conducted to examine how perceived similarity moderates pride and sympathy appeal messages for organ donation. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Emotional appeal messages were respectively manipulated through emphasizing patient's suffering (sympathy) and organ donor's achievements (pride). A pretest was also performed on Amazon Mechanical Turk to ensure the effectiveness of emotional appeal message. Perceived similarity was achieved by presenting a picture of either a male or female individual with a neutral emotion to participants.

The study showed that perceived similarity was a positive predictor of intentions to become an organ donor. Furthermore, perceived similarity can moderate the effects of both sympathy and pride appeal messages on attitudes and intentions of organ donation.

This study found that perceived similarity could change people's behavioral intentions to become organ donors. Therefore, this study can inform potential strategies to persuade people to become organ donors through emphasizing perceived similarity and using emotional appeals.