Exploring Trade-offs in the Attitude towards Digital Technologies like AAL: An Empirical Study on Conditionals for AAL Acceptance

Currently the digitisation entails a wide portfolio of technical solutions that are perceived to be useful for care and support of older people in the future. In approaches like Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), different (medical) technologies are merged to customizable concepts that offer support for an independent and safe living at home. Based on the principles of ubiquitous computing health relevant services, e.g., measurement of vital parameters, can be provided and take serious actions if necessary. Beside the challenge to integrate the technological issues, the attitude of potential users is still not fully understood and far from predictable. Especially when it comes to formation of a general attitude towards AAL technologies there is relatively little knowledge about the trade-offs in the decision-making process. That is why this paper focuses on conditionals and trade-offs in the acceptance process of AAL technologies. The chosen mixed-method approach consisting of a qualitative study (n=10) and a questionnaire survey (n=177) revealed a set of influencing factors that are related to privacy and situational and ethical conflicts.