New Technologies: India and China See Enormous Potential - Europeans More Sceptical

BERLIN, October 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

A study conducted by the opinion research institute Ipsos on behalf of the Vodafone Institute has found that Europeans are generally less optimistic about digitisation and future technologies than people in Asia.

The study of 9,000 people in nine countries examines the differences in attitudes towards the digitisation of societies and perceptions of the benefits it will bring as countries move towards becoming Gigabit Societies. The findings constitute one of the largest cross-continental studies of technology acceptance against the background of digitisation.

The majority of people surveyed have a positive attitude towards digitisation. However, there are large regional differences. Nations in Western Europe and the USA are far less optimistic about the benefits that digitisation can bring (around 50 percent) than nations such as China, India or Bulgaria (around 80 percent).

According to respondents, the greatest benefit of digitisation is the potential to save resources through the use of smart systems and improve mobility through smart traffic systems. 48 percent of respondents said cyber attacks are the greatest danger associated with new technologies and 63 percent fear that new technologies could lead to people being controlled by machines.

While there are very few differences in the way men and women view digitisation in China and India, in Europe the study found that women are far less optimistic about the adoption of new technologies than men. In Germany, for example, 55 percent of the men surveyed see digitisation as "very positive" or "positive", but only 41 percent of the women surveyed see it as positive.

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Friedrich Pohl            
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