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

Examining the Effect of Self-Determined Appeal Organ Donation Messages and Respective Underlying Mechanism

“…This mediating role of self-integrity corresponds with previous studies that self-affirmed people are more open to threatening information [ 52 , 53 ]. The positive associations between moral emotions, such as sympathy and pride, and attitude and intentions of organ donation correspond with previous studies that both sympathy and pride can motivate people to become organ donors [ 7 , 37 ].…”

“…Thus, a related appeal organ donation message will generate more sympathy than unrelated message. Moreover, sympathy is also a moral emotion [ 36 ] and can positively influence organ donation attitude [ 37 ] and intention [ 7 , 38 ]. Massi Lindsey and Yun [ 37 ] found that sympathy positively associated with attitude via an experiment.…”

“…Massi Lindsey and Yun [ 37 ] found that sympathy positively associated with attitude via an experiment. Kong and Lee [ 7 ] and Kong [ 38 ] conducted an experiment on Mturk and found that sympathy exerted a significant impact on attitude and intention of organ donation. Therefore, under a related appeal organ donation message, people tend to experience more sympathy, which leads to a more positive attitude and intention of organ donation.…”

“…Since pride is also a moral emotion [ 40 ], feelings of pride can produce more prosocial behavior [ 41 ]. Kong and Lee [ 7 ] found that pride appeal message generated more positive attitude and intention of organ donation via an experiment with Amazon Mturk workers. In the context of organ donation, pride denotes if a person can do anything to help others who are suffering.…”

“…Although previous studies in health communication examined both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations in behavior change, when it comes to behavior change in organ donation, extrinsic motivations have been extensively explored. Previous studies on organ donation mainly focused on examining extrinsic motivation, such as avoiding guilt [ 4 ] or emphasizing self-benefit [ 5 ], the role of altruism in organ donation [ 6 ], and moral emotions, such as sympathy and pride [ 7 ] to persuade people to become organ donors. The methods used by previous studies were mainly experimental design [ 4 ] and survey [ 5 ].…”