WHAT UNDERLIES MEDICAL DONOR ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

Donor attitudes, intentions, and behaviors have typically been concept ualized as organized along a bipolar continuum. This conceptualization is evident in I. G. Sarason et al.'s study of increasing participatio n in a bone-marrow registry in this issue. When the cumulative researc h on blood, bone-marrow, and organ donor behavior is considered, howev er, evidence suggests that a single, bipolar continuum may be insuffic ient and that a 2-dimensional (Positivity x Negativity) evaluative spa ce may be minimally required to effectively represent and target the u nderlying substrates of donor behaviors. Negative beliefs and fears ma y constitute a particularly difficult obstacle to inducing donor behav iors and, thus, to promoting self-perceptions by people as donors. Und erstanding and changing these negative substrates, therefore, may be i mportant if public health campaigns to increase donor behavior are to be cost-effective.