Explaining Inconsistent Research Findings on the Relationship Between Age and Technostress Perceptions: Insights from the Neuroscience Literature

Abstract

Technostress (TS) research has been conducted since the early 1980s. With regard to the relationship between user age and TS perceptions, research findings are inconsistent. While some scholars argued, and empirically showed, that older users are more prone to experience TS, other studies report opposite results. In this paper, we briefly review the literature and summarize major empirical findings on the relationship between age and TS, thereby documenting the inconsistency of results. Based on this review, we outline neurophysiological insights which might serve as an explanation for the mixed evidence. Specifically, we outline insights from physiology and brain research which describes neurobiological changes in normal aging (i.e., changes that are unrelated to pathologies). We focus on age-related changes related to the human stress system as we expected that these alterations might predominantly contribute to a better understanding of age-related differences in TS perceptions. We close this paper with a concluding comment.