Enriching our theoretical repertoire: the role of evolutionary psychology in technology acceptance

Received: 14 September 2009 Revised: 12 June 2010 2nd Revision: 12 January 2011 3rd Revision: 30 April 2011 Accepted: 11 May 2011 Abstract Information systems (IS) research has drawn heavily on social and cognitive psychology to explain technology adoption. Indeed, the many variations of the technology acceptance model all share these same theoretical foundations. Focusing exclusively on the socio-cognitive lens can lead to overlooking enhanced explanations of technology acceptance, such that new theoretical perspectives may be warranted. In this qualitative grounded theory study, we discovered how the lens of evolutionary psychology, as embodied in the FourDrive model, was helpful in understanding technology acceptance across three organizational sites. We contend that evolutionary psychology is an important addition to the theoretical repertoire of IS researchers, and propose including ‘evolved psychological mechanisms’ within traditional models of technology acceptance. European Journal of Information Systems advance online publication, 21 June 2011; doi:10.1057/ejis.2011.25