부산대학교 도서관

Past research on organ donation messages has indicated that women respond more positively to these messages and are more likely to talk to their families about their organ donation wishes. The present study attempted to investigate messages designed to convince men to donate their organs and to talk with their families about donation. Standpoint analysis was utilized in the development of messages that were hypothesized to appeal more strongly to men compared to women. Additionally, the life vs. death frame of the messages was manipulated to create some with a focus on life and some with a focus on death as they relate to organ donation. Ten organ donation and four family talk messages were tested on a snowball sample of 3508 respondents (approximately half men and half women) using a paper and pencil measure. The results showed that women responded more positively to all of the messages and that death focused messages generally lead to more positive attitudes toward organ donation. No consistent differences were noted between the male-focused vs. female-focused messages. Additional data collection indicated that the planned male and female foci of the messages were not effectively manipulated. The data indicate the continuing difficulty of targeting organ donation messages to potential male donors, but provide some suggestions for doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]