Supplemental material for "The combined influence of attitudinal components on elderly users’ adaptation to news aggregators: A Case Study in China"

Despite global aging and pervasive use of algorithmically-driven mobile applications, the influence of simultaneous and combined attitudinal components on elderly users’ adaptation to these platforms remains understudied. To this end, this study conducts an online survey to obtain quantitative data on why and how Chinese elderly users adapt to news aggregators. The results show that both cognitive (perceived control) and affective (perceived enjoyment, fear and fear) attitudinal components directly affect elderly users’ positive (exploration to maximize or exploitation to satisfice news aggregators’ benefits) and negative (explore to revert from or avoid news aggregators) adaptation behaviors. This study enriches and advances existing literature by examining the combined effects of cognitive and affective components on elderly users’ positive and negative adaptation behaviors towards algorithmically-driven platforms such as news aggregators. APP developers can also benefit from the study to profile users and understand their patterns of engaging with algorithms-based technologies.

尽管全球人口老龄化趋势日益凸显，且算法驱动型移动应用（algorithmically-driven mobile applications）已得到广泛普及，但目前针对态度成分的协同与组合效应对老年用户适配此类平台的影响的相关研究仍较为匮乏。为此，本研究通过开展线上调研获取量化数据，以探究中国老年用户适配新闻聚合器（news aggregators）的动因与具体适配路径。研究结果显示，认知态度成分（感知控制，perceived control）与情感态度成分（感知愉悦，perceived enjoyment；恐惧与恐惧）均会直接影响老年用户的两类适配行为：正向适配行为包括通过探索以最大化收益，或通过利用以满足从新闻聚合器获取收益的需求；负向适配行为则包括通过探索以退出或规避新闻聚合器。本研究通过考察认知与情感态度成分对老年用户适配新闻聚合器等算法驱动型平台的正向与负向适配行为的协同作用，丰富并拓展了现有相关学术研究成果。应用程序（APP）开发者亦可借助本研究成果完成用户画像构建，并深入理解其与基于算法的技术的交互模式。