Elicitation of moral obligation and self-sacrificing behavior: An experimental study of volunteering to be a bone marrow donor.

Abstract

Hypothesized that self-sacrificing behavior is positively related to the saliency of consequences for others and to the salience of the actor's personal responsibility in an appeal for help, and negatively related to the odds of incurring costs. Theoretically, the former 2 variables promote activation of moral norms, while the latter fosters neutralization of norms. These variables were manipulated in appeals to 144 adult Ss in a field experiment to donate bone marrow. Volunteering increased with responsibility (p < .02), and with consequences under 1/1000 odds (p < .05), but was unrelated to odds. The relationship between volunteering and consequences under 1/25 odds was curvilinear, with high salience of consequences producing the lowest rate of volunteering. It is proposed that psychological reactance is expressed overtly as refusal when pressure in an appeal seems illegitimate. Volunteering was positively related to socioeconomic status (p < .01). The strikingly high rate of volunteering is traced to the momentum of compliance. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)