Leveraging Chatbots to Combat Health Misinformation for Older Adults: Participatory Design Study.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Gerontology
• Digital Literacy

Background:

• Older adults are vulnerable to misinformation and health scams, with limited research on their specific needs for managing it.
• Existing approaches to misinformation management often overlook older adults or adopt deficit-based technology design.
• Chatbots offer potential for misinformation management, but their design must be inclusive and asset-based for older adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how older adults can utilize chatbot capabilities for effective misinformation management.
• To understand older adults' perspectives on using intelligent technologies to combat misinformation.

Main Methods:

• Conducted 5 participatory design workshops with 17 older adult participants.
• Developed scenarios of misinformation encounters relevant to older adults' lives.
• Explored existing chatbot platforms and ideated chatbot interventions for identified scenarios.

Main Results:

• Misinformation issues for older adults often stem from interpersonal relationships, requiring chatbots to act as mediators.
• Participants prioritized chatbots that foster autonomy, teaching them to navigate information and draw conclusions independently.
• Distrust in IT companies necessitates transparency and use of trusted sources in chatbot design to build user confidence.

Conclusions:

• Chatbot interventions for older adults should extend beyond simple fact-checking to include mediation and autonomy support.
• Designing effective chatbot-based misinformation management tools requires active collaboration with older adults as co-designers.
• This research provides a foundation for developing user-centered technological systems for older adults' misinformation management.