NUDGING FAMILY DECISION-MAKING PROCESS ON ORGAN DONATION

Abstract

Organ donation shortages worldwide are enduring throughout time and prevalent in all countries. Traditional measures to increase organ donation numbers had been expensive and ineffective. This study set out to explore the effects of behavioral insights techniques (i.e., nudges) on the family decision-making process as nudges are inexpensive and effective. Participants were first given a vignette that contains nudges, to simulate a real-world scenario of a family member suffering from a car accident and then measured on their decisions to 'turn off life support' or 'wait and see', their willingness to donate family member's organs under brain death, cardiac death and their willingness to donate their own organs. Subjective experiences were also measured. Results showed that nudges had no significant effect on family decision-making and subjective experiences. Instead, age and gender were found to significantly predict family decision-making. These unexpected findings contributed to the wider literature and has implications for neo-classical models on decision-making and practical applications for medical scripts in organ donation.