Health Is Silver, Beauty Is Golden?

The acceptance of novel technology is one if not the most decisive component of the success of the technology rollout. Though, acceptance criteria differ not only across the diversity of users, but might also differ across the different usage context. This is especially valid for technologies in the health and beauty context, in which the balance between pro-using arguments and contra-using arguments is especially fragile. This paper focuses on the impact of the context towards the motivation to use an invasive technology. A survey was conducted in which 170 participants of a wide age range (17-89 years) took part. In the study, three different usage scenarios were presented (medical scenario, preventative healthcare scenario and beauty scenario). After an introduction into each scenario the participants had to evaluate usage motives and barriers. The results corroborated the impact of the situational context and the dependency of acceptance outcomes on the reasons for which technology might be used. Overall, acceptance was highest for medical technology and lowest for the beauty context. Considering the single reasons for or against the technology, we find that nature and weighing of perceived barriers and concerns are quite similar, independently of the context.