Willingness to participate in biobanking: The roles of Big Five personality traits and interpersonal trusting beliefs

Health-related philanthropy is essential for biobanks. Nonetheless, little is known about the roles of personality and trust in particular with respect to participation in biobanking. In a sample of 600 Slovaks, the present study aimed to examine whether the Big Five personality traits and interpersonal trusting beliefs, namely self-focused generalised trust, other-focused generalised trust and trust in medical researchers, predicted the willingness to participate in biobanking. The results showed that self-focused generalised trust and trust in medical researchers positively predicted the willingness to participate in biobanking, while the Big Five personality traits and other focused generalised trust did not. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between different interpersonal trusting beliefs and can be applied in communication and recruitment strategies attempting to attract participants of biobanking.