The effect of attitudes and an immediate registration opportunity on organ donor registrations

• ¹ Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia

Aims: A quarter of Australians have registered their donor wishes on the National Organ Donor Register despite 90% reporting support for organ donation. This attitude-behaviour discrepancy suggests that positive attitudes alone do not lead to donor registrations. Research has yet to fully investigate the role behavioural supports play in increasing registration rates. We conceptualised organ donation attitudes as an interaction of positive and negative attitudes and compared an immediate with a delayed registration opportunity in order to 1) investigate the relationship between positive and negative attitudes and registration decision and 2) determine whether an immediate registration opportunity increased registrations compared to the current online process. Method: Two studies were conducted. In study one, 715 university staff and students completed an online survey measuring positive and negative attitudes towards organ donation and willingness to register organ donor wishes. In study two, 192 NSW community members completed a shortened, validated version of the same survey administered at four community events. Half of the participants were given an immediate registration opportunity whilst the remaining half were given a delayed, online registration opportunity. Results: Willingness to register was higher when individuals had low negative attitudes compared to high negative attitudes, regardless of level of positive attitudes. Similarly, individuals with high positive attitudes were more likely to register their donation wishes when negative attitudes were lower. Importantly, 61.7% of individuals in the immediate condition registered compared to 11.6% in the delayed condition.   Conclusions: These findings suggest that both positive and negative attitudes need to be considered in interventions designed to increase organ donor registrations. Moreover, our results offer a practical solution to increasing organ donor registrations through providing an immediate and complete registration opportunity.