Older adults' decisions on smart home systems: Better put an age tag on it

Addressing the demands of our aging society, technologies such as smart home systems enhance older adults' independence and enable them to live longer at home. Yet, older adults tend to avoid, delegate, or defer decisions, and smart home systems are rarely used by individuals over the age of 65. Drawing on research on choice overload and age labels, we investigate across four studies how the presentation of smart home systems can influence the decision‐making process of older adults ages 65+ by mitigating choice complexity and, consequently, choice avoidance. We argue that age‐framing of complex systems makes the choice options easier to process for older adults than does price‐framing, the current market standard. We find that age‐framing positively affects the rate of choice, and we identify reduced choice complexity as the underlying process. Our research further demonstrates that family members, as important co‐deciders, evaluate decisions made on age‐framed alternatives more positively, thus making it easier for older adults to justify their decisions. We thus contribute to research on the decision‐making of older adults in general and on age labels in particular, and we identify important practical implications for providers of high investment products for older adults.