Study title

This study was conducted with the support of a British Academy/ Leverhulme Small Research Grant (SRG1819\191190). Participants (N = 848) were recruited for this online study through Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com). To be eligible, participants needed to be 18 years or older and living in Wales. We asked people not to take part if they were likely to feel distressed discussing organ donation. After giving consent, participants were asked to provide some information about themselves (e.g., age, sex, blood donor status, organ donor status). We then provided participants with some information about organ donation in Wales (see Questionnaire and data key document). Participants were then asked to imagine a loved one had died. We randomly allocated participants to imagine the deceased had either a) registered as an organ donor, b) registered as a non-donor, or c) not registered a decision and in Wales this means they are assumed to support organ donation. Following this, participants rated their uncertainty about the deceased’s wishes, anticipated regret for not donating their loved one’s organs, and intention to approve of donating different organs and tissue. Participants then completed measures assessing affective attitudes towards organ donation (O’Carroll et al., 2011) and risk aversion (Bibby & Ferguson, 2011). Finally, participants were debriefed.

The aim of this research was to assess the factors that influence family member's willingness to donate a deceased loved one's organs in an opt-out system.