Study Says Donor Personality a Real Fear Among Most People

A new study has found that most people do not want to receive donated organs from a killer as they fear they will "inherit" similar personalities.

Researchers at the University of Bristol quizzed 20 students, who were told to imagine they needed a heart transplant to live. The students were asked if morals of the done would bother them.

Initially the students were shown photographs of people and asked to rate how happy they would be if they received organs from them. The second time researchers showed the same photos, but told students if the potential donors were good or bad. Negative scores increased if students found the donors were bad persons.

"Some of the psychological changes many patients experience have very good physiological explanations, however according to one survey of transplant patients, approximately one in three attribute this change to taking on psychological characteristics of the donor even though conventional science has generally rejected the idea that such transference is possible," said lead author Professor Bruce Hood, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Bristol.

The details were presented at the Cheltenham Science Festival.



Source-Medindia
RAS