For God’s Sake: Integrating the Theory of Reasoned Action and Technology Acceptance Model to Predict Smartphone Use during Church Services

Abstract

Smartphone use has quickly become a fixture of everyday life, including during church services. Drawing from the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model, we develop a model to identify key drivers of smartphone use during church services. Smartphone Playfulness was included in the model to reflect a more intrinsic motivation to use one’s smartphone during church services. Study 1 surveys 329 US adults and finds that our newly developed model explains 66 percent of the variation in intentions to use one’s smartphone during church services. A second study conducted six weeks later with 164 of the original respondents finds that behavioral intentions explains 44 percent of the variation in actual smartphone use. Findings suggest that the newly developed model presented herein is a valuable tool in explaining smartphone use in church and may prove helpful in explaining acceptance decisions across a wide variety of computer-based media technologies.