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The Diffusion Model and the Social-Hierarchical Process of Change

This article presents some critical comments on the use of Rogers' innovation-diffusion model, which is often referred to in health promotion research as an explanation of how behavioural changes occur over time. The analytical focus is on the belief that there is a social pattern in the process of diffusion, so that higher socioeconomic groups lead the way in adopting ‘preventive innovations’, and lower socio-economic groups subsequently follow as ‘late adopters’. This view of the diffusion process—closely akin to the notion of ‘imitation/social role modelling’—will be reviewed here within a sociological framework.