Arpita Sharma is Doctoral Research Scholar in the Dept. of Agricultural Communication of G. B. Pant University at Pantnagar.

1. CATEGORIES OF
ADOPTERS
Arpita Sharma
Ph.D. Research Scholar
Dept. of Agricultural Communication
G. B. Pant University of Ag.& Tech. Pantnagar,
Uttarakhand
arpii2008@gmail.com

2. Diffusion:
Diffusion is a process by which
innovation is communicated through
certain channels overtime among the
member of social System. It is a special
type of communication.

3. Elements of Diffusion
Categories of adopters
Innovation
Certain channels
Social system
Overtime

4. Innovators (venturesome)
Early Adopters (respect)
Early Majority (deliberate)
Late Majority (skeptical)
Laggards (traditional)

5. Sweden
90
80
70
Cumulation acreoss age within cohort
60
50
50 55
60
65
40
70
30
20
10
0
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
Age

7.  Interest in new ideas leads them out of local
circle of peer networks
 Cosmopolite and activity may go beyond the
community boundaries
 Control of substantial financial resources
 Ability to understand and apply technical
knowledge
 Must cope with high degrees of uncertainty

8.  More integrated part of local social system
 Greatest degree of opinion leadership
 The person to check with
 Sought by change agents
 Respected by their peers
 Makes judicious innovation-decisions

9.  Interact frequently with peers
 Seldom hold leadership opinion
positions
 Innovation-decision period is longer
 Most numerous - one-third of the
members of the system

10.  Adopt just after the average member of a system
 Adoption because of economic necessity
 Also increasing pressures from peers
 Skeptical and cautious in their approach
 Peer pressure necessary
 Most of the uncertainty must be removed

11.  Last in a system to adopt
 Many are near isolates in the social network
of their system
 Interact primarily with others who have
traditional values
 Suspicious of innovations and change agents

12.  Earlyadopters:
 aren’t different in age from later adopters
 have more years of formal education
 are more likely to be literate
 have higher social status
 have a greater degree of social mobility
 have larger units (e.g. farms, schools)

13.  Earlyadopters:
 have greater empathy
 may be less dogmatic
 have a greater ability to deal with
abstractions
 have greater rationality
 have greater intelligence

14.  Earlier adopters:
 more favorable attitude toward change
 are better able to cope with uncertainty
 more favorable attitude toward science
 are less fatalistic
 have higher aspirations

15.  Earlieradopters:
 more social participation
 more interconnected through
interpersonal networks
 more cosmopolite
 more change agent contact
 greater exposure to mass media

16.  Earlieradopters:
 greater exposure to interpersonal
communications channels
 seek information about innovations more
actively
 have greater knowledge of innovations
 higher degree of opinion leadership