Motivations and barriers to engagement with consumer health innovations: the impact of media framing on direct-to-consumer genetic testing adoption intent

Through the lens of Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations, specifically the theory of Perceived Attributes, this dissertation firstly examines key factors leading to or deterring adoption of direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) for health information through qualitative interviews with prospective customers. Results indicate that the main motivations include finding out perceived beneficial health information and comparisons to testing via medical providers. The main deterrents for adoption were reported to be privacy concerns, perceived susceptibility to conditions, and the desire to remain uncertain about one’s genetic health risk. Additionally, this dissertation considered the role of issue-specific media framing on adoption intent. A second study consisting of an experiment used media framing theory to determine which factors would lead to a higher likelihood of adoption. Results revealed that media framed to discuss the perceived advantages of the technology had the highest likelihood of adoption. Implications for theory and industry are discussed throughout this dissertation

Personal Power and Agency When Dealing with Interactive Voice Response Systems and Alternative Modalities

In summer 2015, we conducted an exploratory study of how people in the U.S. use and respond to robot-like systems in order to achieve their needs through mediated customer service interfaces. To understand this process, we carried out three focus groups sessions along with 50 in-depth interviews. Strikingly we found that people perceive (correctly or not) that interactive voice response customer service technology is set up to deter them from pursuing further contact. And yet, for the most part, people were unwilling to simply give up on the goals that motivated their initial contact. Consequently, they had to innovate ways to communicate with the automated systems that essentially serve as gatekeepers to their desired ends. These results have implications for communication theory and system design, especially since these systems will be increasingly presented to consumers as social media affordances evolve