Han and Wibral (2020), “Organ Donation and Reciprocity"

Hua-Jing Han and Matthias Wibral, “Organ Donation and Reciprocity.” Journal of Economic Psychology 81, December 2020.

• Do people who display more positive reciprocity donate organs more readily?

• Do people who display more negative reciprocity donate organs less readily?

• Should people who had previously registered as organ donors receive priority should they need an organ? (Such a policy was adopted in Israel, and apparently increased donor registrations.)

• Does a bad experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) undermine organ donor registration (which, in the US, often takes place at the DMV)?

• The authors make use of some helpful German data, drawn from a survey that asked questions related to both organ donation and to reciprocity. Three questions are used to measure negative reciprocity (e.g., "If somebody offends me, I will offend him/her back."), and three questions measure positive reciprocity (e.g., "If someone does me a favor, I am prepared to return it").

• Two dependent variables: willingness to donate (46% yes) and possession of an organ donor card (12% yes); N=683.

• Both positive and negative reciprocity affect willingness to donate (in the expected directions); however, only negative reciprocity influences donor card acquisition.