The literature prompts the need for further inquiry into establishing the nature of trust for older people who use the Internet. It asks for inquiry about the way in which online interactions are used in mandated and imposed scenarios, yet trust is not always forthcoming from such enforced ICT usage.
The literature reveals a gap in terms of the trusted usage and acceptance of technology under mandatory conditions. In particular, literature about technology choices by older people indicates higher levels of risk, potential vulnerabilities, and increased likelihood of financial and social difficulties for older people as they attempt to interact securely and safely with new technology.
By asking whether older people’s trust in technology is diminished in cases where the technology or system is mandated (Hypothesis 1), a better understanding of technology usage and acceptance might be possible, enabling older people to grow and renew trusted interactions with technology. The benefits are widespread. They include financial security, health security, improved social welfare provisioning, and greater engagement with government services. Older people will interact and intermingle with all levels of social society if they are able to trust technology in an even-handed, equitable manner.
Further, by examining whether older people who are novices at ICTs are at risk through poor technology choices and a distrust in new innovations, it will be possible to understand, shape and regulate the environments in which older people make decisions based on coercion, fear, and unsubstantiated information.
By asking the question: “What affects the way older people make informed decisions about trust in ICT innovations that involve imposed or mandated online financial interactions?” this research will create a set of understandings that can be used to inform banks, governments, and policy makers with a view to providing technology that can be used and accepted by all of society (including older people).
120 The literature is clear in revealing that older people make unorthodox, unusual, and restricted choices about technology usage and acceptance. By understanding the nature of trust and acceptance of technology where its usage is either imposed or mandatory, research based on these literature gaps may prove helpful to reducing cyber-crime, financial stress, and social upheaval.
2.8.1.1 Summary of the problem to be investigated
The combination of uncertainties in usage, coupled with the rapid pace with which ICT technology is changing (Liao & Cheung, 2003; Grguric, 2012), creates an environment where older people commit to trusting people and systems involving ICTs that they otherwise might forego (Keat
& Mohan, 2004; Morris et al., 2007). The impact of online crime acts as a multiplier of disadvantage to older people (Carlson, 2006; Mouallem, 2002). Older people are targeted more than other individuals for online activity as they represent comparatively easy prey for low-level attacks on security including phishing, social engineering, and password hacking (Chakraborty, R., Sankaranarayanan, &
Upadhyaya, 2008; Cook et al., 2011a). Older people are more targeted by criminals for these types of online vulnerabilities than other age groups (Grimes, Hough, Mazur, & Signorella, 2010). Increasing numbers of financial activities require online ICT usage and trust (Charness & Boot, 2009). Thus older people may feel the need to engage in online financial activities whilst online financial providers (such as banks) who promote online technology are widening the interpersonal distance between themselves and their older customers who can exacerbate distrust (Benamati & Serva, 2007).
The literature shows that the key issues that inform this study into trust and mandation of the use of financial ICTs can be viewed through five ‘lenses’. The actions of people are linked to what they perceive in terms of trust. People will act in accordance with what seems appropriate, except when they are coerced of required to follow an action for an external reason. The differences between the way some people trust ICTs and others do not are connected to issues of information, knowledge and perceptions about what can be trusted. The concepts of trust are complex and subjective. These are related to the ideas of others, and relate to previously established norms. The opinions and beliefs of older people are influenced by a variety of sources, but in particular by the human exchanges with peers and those in authority. Processes and abilities are an important 5th mens because they relate to the
121 capabilities of older people in learning about the relatively new area of ICT usage, and connect with the ability to be trained so as to maximise the use of ICTs within a trusted financial environment. These five lenses are discussed throughout the literature and are important considerations for this study.
Whilst older people exhibit wisdom and judgement across a wide range of life experiences, they are comparatively novice in matters of ICT usage (Blake, 1998; Byrne & Staehr, 2006; Manoim, 2011). Older people living in relative isolation from others are over-trusting of criminals. One benefit of the use of ICTs by seniors is the ability to decrease the feeling of isolation by engaging in online activities (Morrell, Mayhorn, & Echt, 2004). However, as a cohort they are said to “still carry the values of a past society, when people helped and trusted each other” (Jonson, 2003). Technology and the use of ICT by older citizens endure the stigma of pejorative sentiment towards late adopters of technology (Chesters et al., 2013; Rogers, Mayhorn, & Fisk, 2004). In this sense, perceptions are important because they will precede usage and acceptance. In many cases the perception that an ICT innovation is not trustworthy may drive the decision not to use that innovation. In situations where the acceptance of technology requires a holistic and complex understanding of the innovation and its associated usage, risks, and consequences, an older person may rely on the perceptions of their peers. Technology acceptance is most commonly modelled in terms of perceptions rather than actual usage (Venkatesh, 2000).
122 3 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN
As a prelude to the discussion on methodology, it is necessary to firstly discuss the viewpoint of the researcher in the form of a guiding paradigm (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2007). Such guidance steers the research in terms of the decisions and directions (Whitehead and McNiff, 2006).
Guba, (1990) suggests that the determination of the research paradigm requires an understanding and characterisation of the ontology (a view of what is reality), the epistemology (a view of how something comes to be known and accepted), and then the methodology (a view of how the study should go about finding out the things it discovers and how it makes sense of them).
Figure 3.1 A continuum of methodological approaches to the study of trust and technology relationships