The diffusion of innovation theory seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures.Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.

The Diffusion of Innovation

<ol><li>The innovation – an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption.</li><li>Communication channels – by which messages get from one individual to another.</li><li>Time – the length of time required to pass through the innovation-decision process.</li><li>Social system – a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal.”</li></ol>

Influential Elements on New Ideas Spread

<ol><li>Knowledge: first exposed to innovation but lacks information.</li><li>Persuasion: interested in innovation and actively seeks information.</li><li>Decision: decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation.</li><li>Implementation: determines the usefulness of the innovation.</li><li>Confirmation: finalizes his or her decision to continue using the innovation.</li></ol>

Stages of Adopters

<ol><li>Innovators: The risk-taker. The first individuals to adopt an innovation.</li><li>Early adopters: The opinion leaders. The second fastest category of individuals who adopt an innovation. </li><li>Early majority: Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time.</li><li>Late majority: The skeptics. Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of society does.</li><li>Laggards: The old-fashioned. Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation.</li></ol>

Categories of Adopters

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The Spread of New Products

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to some changes to eliminate the discomfort and restore balance.

Cognitive Dissonance at a glance

<ol><li>Forced Compliance Behavior</li><li>Decision Making</li><li>Effort</li></ol>

What causes cognitive dissonance?

When someone is forced to do (publicly) something they (privately) really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it). But the behavior can't be changed, since it was already in the past, so it will need to be reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done.

Forced Compliance Behavior

Life is filled with decisions, and decisions (as a general rule) arouse dissonance.A common way to reduce dissonance is to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the rejected alternative. This is referred to as "spreading apart the alternatives."

Decision Making

For example, suppose you had to decide whether to accept a job in an absolutely beautiful area of the country, or turn down the job so you could be near your friends and family. Both alternatives have their good points and bad points. The rub is that making a decision cuts off the possibility that you can enjoy the advantages of the unchosen alternative &amp; accept the disadvantages of the chosen alternative.

Example of Decision Making

This is probably caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively. We could, of course, spend years of effort into achieving something which turns out to be a load of rubbish and then, in order to avoid the dissonance that produces, try to convince ourselves that we didn't really spend years of effort, or that the effort was really quite enjoyable, or that it wasn't really a lot of effort.

Effort

Dissonance can be reduced in one of three ways: a) changing existing beliefs, b) adding new beliefs, or c) reducing the importance of the beliefs.

How is cognitive dissonance resolved?

McLeod, S. A. (2018, Febuary 05). Cognitive dissonance . Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html

The Spread of New Products

Cognitive Dissonance Theory | Simply Psychology

Raudya Maghfira