A digital voice for the elderly

In this study, we tested the effect of narratives versus informative persuasive messages regarding a digital elderly panel. Healthcare in the Netherlands is changing, so the Zorg Innovatie Forum believes it is important that older people are more involved in developments that affects them. An experiment was developed with three conditions: informative, narrative with a male narrator and a narrative with a female narrator.

A total of 108 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. They participated in an online survey, consisting of questions regarding, attitude, intention, transportation and identification. The results showed that participants did not scored higher on attitude and intention in the narrative condition than in the informative condition. The gender of the narrator also appeared to have no influence on attitude and intention. How higher the transportation and identification, how higher the attitude. Identification is not a significant predictor for intention. A total of 57% wants to participate in the digital elderly panel. The results suggest that the literature about narratives does not apply to elder people. Elder people have other reasons and motives why they do or do not want to participate in the digital elderly panel. What these reasons are will have to be investigated in follow-up research.