Older adults' willingness to adopt technologies: an experimental study

Abstract Understanding why older adults are willing to consider using technology is critical for ensuring that that the advantages of technology for improving the quality of their lives can be realized. Prior emphasis in this area has primarily been on questionnaire studies directed at capturing relatively general attitudes older adults have toward technology. We report on an empirical study that included 187 male and female adults 65-92 years of age who were given presentations on each of five technologies spanning domains that included transportation, leisure, health, and new learning. Each presentation was followed by a series of ratings on measures hypothesized to influence participants’ willingness to adopt the technology. We will overview the Technology Assessment Procedure, the methodology developed to evaluate willingness to adopt a technology, and measures that were collected. We will also present a model used to predict willingness to adopt the technology and provide some initial findings.