Disarming prejudice: how ease of use mitigates the detrimental effect of IT-based stereotype threat on the IT task performance of older adults

We propose that although just an oversimplified picture, the stereotype that older adults cannot use IT turns into a real threat to older adults on IT tasks. We find in an experiment with 96 older adults on a municipality website that the stereotype of not being able to use IT creates a toxic cognitive load in the minds of older adults, which in turn significantly impairs their information search on the website. Based on cognitive load as a theoretical leverage point for an intervention against IT-based stereotype threat, our results furthermore highlight that increasing a website’s ease of use effectively protects older adults against the stereotype about their inability in the IS domain. We offer in this paper a theoretically-grounded starting point for disarming prejudice in the digital transformation of societies