Institute for Marketing, Hamburg Business School, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Mar 24;17(3):e0265171. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265171. eCollection 2022.
During a crisis, society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant differences as it is an ongoing crisis that affects all individuals and has the potential to pose a direct health threat to anyone. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic may also negatively affect willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood will be needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted in Germany during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020), we find lower medium and long-term blood donation intentions. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. Furthermore, inactive donors' perceived ability to donate significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, resulting in an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications for driving donations in the event of a pandemic.
在危机期间，社会呼吁个人采取促进危机管理的亲社会行动。事实上，灾难发生后，人们更愿意提供帮助。然而，COVID-19 大流行带来了显著的不同，因为它是一场持续的危机，影响到所有个人，并有可能对任何人构成直接的健康威胁。因此，我们认为大流行也可能对帮助意愿产生负面影响，特别是献血意愿。除了危机爆发之外，还需要更高的意愿来献血，因为推迟的手术恢复后需要更多的血液。我们将大流行前的研究中的献血意愿与德国在 COVID-19 大流行第一阶段（2020 年 4 月至 6 月）进行的六波（每两周一次）面板研究的结果进行比较，发现中短期献血意愿较低。虽然与大流行前相比，活跃献血者在大流行开始时对自己的献血能力和资格的认识有所提高，但随着大流行的发展，他们感觉自己的献血能力明显下降。此外，与大流行前相比，不活跃献血者在大流行期间对自己的献血能力感知显著下降。至关重要的是，活跃和不活跃的献血者都感到自己的责任和道德义务减少，导致献血意愿受到整体负面影响。COVID-19 大流行危及到救命的血液供应。这些令人震惊的结果为在大流行期间推动献血提供了基于证据的实际影响的依据。
