In search of determinants of pro-social potential in a group of honorary blood donors – the importance of personality and health resources for interpersonal generosity

Worldwide reports attest to the burgeoning popularity of research in the group of honorary blood donors. It involves a wide range of variables related to both fear and anxiety associated with the blood donation process, as well as the search for traits and resources motivating people to donate blood and donating on a regular basis, and factors related to prosocial potential in this group. Accordingly, it was decided to explore the relationship between health behaviour, framed in terms of an individual’s health resources, empathy, self-construal, community and agency – understood as personal resources – and interpersonal generosity – understood as a determinant of the individual’s prosocial potential. The study sample included 580 individuals, 445 of whom (76.7%) were Honorary Blood Donors and 135 (23.3%) were non-donors. The following tools were used: the Health Behaviour Inventory (IZZ), the Self-Construal Scale (SKJ), the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Questionnaire (QCAE), Scales for Measuring Agency and Communion (30-item self-description questionnaire) and the Interpersonal Generosity Scale (IGS). The results of the correlation analyses showed associations between certain health behaviours, cognitive and affective empathy, self-construal, communion and agency and interpersonal generosity. The linear regression analysis found that preventive behaviours, positive psychological attitudes, cognitive and affective empathy, interdependent self and communality (in the total sample) were significant for interpersonal generosity. Comparison of results of the correlation and regression analyses showed differences in the strengths of the associations between the Blood Donor group and the control group, while analysis using the Mann-Whitney U test, despite showing statistically significant differences between the groups, did not show them to be large enough.