Diffusion of Innovations

Everett Rogers’s account of how innovations are communicated, adopted, adapted, or rejected within a social system over time. It draws attention to communication channels, social relationships, perceived characteristics of an innovation, and the conditions under which people decide to use it.

Diffusion concerns the spread of an idea or practice through a social setting over time. To use the model, look at who learns about the innovation, how they hear about it, what they think it offers, and whether they can try it. A person may understand an idea and still reject it because it is costly, inconvenient, incompatible with their needs, or simply unwanted.

An adoption curve summarizes a pattern across people; it does not tell you why a particular person should adopt. The familiar adopter percentages come from conventional divisions of an idealized distribution, not fixed quotas that every community must fill. Treat the categories as descriptive aids and investigate the actual barriers, channels, adaptations, and reasons for rejection in the setting at hand.

When to use it

When introducing or studying a new practice, tool, service, or idea in a group, or when distinguishing social popularity from suitability for a particular person.

How it can help

Helps investigate the spread or stalled uptake of an idea by examining communication, fit, access, trial opportunities, and people’s perceived benefits and costs.