L'acceptabilité sociale: La prise en compte des déterminants sociaux dans l'analyse de l'acceptabilité des systèmes technologiques

Abstract

Acceptance literature gives us many competing models (e.g., Technology acceptance model, The motivational model, the model of PC utilization, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology...) to underline how we can predict user acceptance of information technology. All these models take their origins in the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA, Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975) and in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1980) which are classical models for predicting new behavior. In the TPB and TRA, the most important predictor of behavior is behavioral intention and Intention is predicted by attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. We find all this determinants in acceptance models. In our point of view, the influence of norms is largely neglected. In fact, researches often just consider the individual acceptance (e.g., utility and utilisability). The importance of norms or social context is now recognized in social psychology. In this paper we try to underline how norms and social context can contribute to knowledge about user acceptance technology. Our project aims to bring psychosocial contribution to the question of acceptance. According to Doise (1982), when studying an object, social psychology research might follow four levels of analyses : 1/the intra-individual level (explaining behavior in terms of how people organize knowledge and experiences in their mind) ; 2/the inter-individual level (explanation of behave in terms of social relationships) ; 3/« positional» level (explanations are found in social status) ; and 4/ideological level (understanding behavior in terms of culture, social values). We think that in order to predict the use of technology we should consider all those levels.