Satisficing behavior and bounded rationality among older adults engaging in online health information seeking (OHIS)

Purpose This study aims to explore older adults' online health information seeking (OHIS) based on the theory of satisficing behavior and bounded rationality. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a qualitative survey design. Data were collected through interviews with 34 older adults from China with experience seeking health information online and analyzed following qualitative data analysis approach. Findings A theoretical model is established based on satisficing behavior, bounded rationality and their relationships, all emerging from the empirical data. It reveals two major satisficing behaviors that older adults conduct to manage their individual investment in OHIS: reduction and termination. Their decisions regarding OHIS were made under bounded rationality and so are shaped by time constraints, cognitive limitations, physical constraints, value derecognition, conscious/unconscious not-knowing and a shrinking field of general information activities. Bounded rationality affects older adults' decisions via the cognitive path and the practice path. Research limitations/implications The paper urges LIS researchers to go beyond assuming older adults' rationality when examining their OHIS behaviors and to go beyond actions to also examine values, knowledge states and social practice. Practical implications The paper calls for information professionals to take a novel perspective to understand older adults' OHIS behavior and reform their services and training campaigns accordingly. Originality/value The paper's model presents the non-optimal OHIS behavior of older adults and provides a novel explanation for their behavior; it identifies six components of bounded rationality and reveals that bounded rationality impacts older adults' decisions to adopt satisficing strategies through the thoughts of reducing information seeking investment, holding low expectation of return, avoiding personal loss and the fact that participants bear unfulfilled or unknown cognitive gap.