Attitude toward Death, Fear of Being Declared Dead Too Soon, and Donation of Organs after Death

Abstract

Although death anxieties seem to play a decisive role in the degree of willingness to donate organs for transplantation after death, the results of most studies have not been able to explain satisfactorily the discrepancy between attitude(s) and behavior in the matter of organ donation. Following up on prior research, this article describes a study based on Weyant's cost-benefit model for altruistic behavior. Two death anxieties (the attitude toward death and the fear of being declared dead too soon) are introduced separately to explain organ donation behavior. The results show that these two almost unrelated death anxieties improve the explanatory force of the attitude-behavior relationship with respect to organ donation.