Helping me, helping you: self-referencing and gender roles in donor advertising.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Donor advertising typically emphasizes altruism, but an appeal to individual self-interest may be more effective in heightening blood donation intentions among youthful nondonors.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
A total of 292 undergraduate business students at a Canadian university provided complete data in response to a between-subjects full-factorial advertising experiment with sex, self-referencing, and message strategy factors. Self-referencing, or mental processing that links information to the self-concept, was elicited at either a low or moderate level, whereas the message strategy was either agentic (donate blood because you may need it yourself) or communal (donate blood because someone close to you may need it). Dependent variables included identification with the ad, donation intentions, and a discrimination measure of recognition memory.

RESULTS:
A three-way interaction among sex, self-referencing level (low or moderate), and message (agentic or communal) was found. Two-way self-referencing by message graphs of donation intentions and ad identification showed a parallel structure for males in that their responses were generally more favorable when self-referencing was at a moderate level, regardless of the message type. Among women, however, crossover interactions between the level of self-referencing and the message type (agentic vs. communal) were observed, such that the message's effect differed with the level of self-referencing. For both men and women, the agentic message was more effective than communal ad copy when a moderate level of self-referencing was achieved.

CONCLUSION:
Collection agencies should consider appealing to young nondonors by suggesting that they give blood to make it available for themselves if required.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Hupfer, M E (ME);

Affiliation: DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. hupferm(-atsign-)mcmaster.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Transfusion (Transfusion), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 46 (issue 6) : pp 996-1005

Dates: Created 2006/05/31; Completed 2006/07/18; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 16734817, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.