Healthcare in an Interconnected World: Increasing Blood Donations and Well-Being in the Social Media Era

Blood donations are an integral part of global healthcare systems and patient well-being, yet there is a constant lack of blood supply necessary to meet patient demands. Responding to this need, social media companies are attempting to reduce blood shortages by leveraging consumers’ online networks. However, the efficacy of this practice is questioned, as online interconnectivity may negatively influence offline donation behaviors. Across four studies, including a secondary data analysis, two field studies matched with five years of archival data (one paired with five months of longitudinal data), and a 15,000-person field experiment, this research confirms that more social media consumption - despite increasing connectedness - decreases blood donations. Building on construal theory, this research also identifies the underlying mechanism for this effect: more social media use activates abstract (versus concrete) social connections, resulting in decreased blood donations because the concrete act of donating blood is incongruent with the abstract nature of online social relationships. Gender also emerges as a boundary condition, such that the negative effect of social media use is stronger for males. This research also demonstrates how to increase blood donations in the field, providing marketers, nonprofits, and healthcare practitioners with effective methods to increase blood donations.