Understanding Decision-Making in the Adoption of Digital Health Technology: The Role of Behavioral Economics’ Prospect Theory

The decision to accept or reject new digital health technologies remains an ongoing challenge among health care patients, providers, technology companies, and policymakers. Over the past few decades, interest in understanding the choice to adopt technology has led to the development of numerous theories and models. In 1979, however, psychologists Kahneman and Tversky published their seminal research article that has pioneered the field of behavioral economics. They named their model the prospect theory and used it to explain decision-making behaviors under conditions of risk and uncertainty as well as to provide an understanding of why individuals may make irrational or inconsistent choices. Although the prospect theory has been used to explain decision-making in economics, law, political science, and clinically, at the individual level, its application to understanding choice in the adoption of digital health technology has not been explored. Herein, we discuss how the main components of the prospect theory’s editing phase (framing effect) and evaluation phase (value function and weighting function) can provide valuable insight on why health care patients, providers, technology companies, and policymakers may decide to accept or reject digital health technologies.