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A fundamental principle of human communication is that the transfer of ideas occurs most frequently between individuals who are alike, or homophilous. Homophily is the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are similar in certain attributes, such as beliefs, education, social status, and the like. Social relations are much closer between individuals who resemble each other in occupation and education.
Homophily occurs so frequently because communication is more effective when source and receiver are homophilous. Such effective communication is rewarding to those involved in it. When two individuals share common meanings, beliefs, and a mutual language, communication between them is more likely to be effective. Most individuals enjoy the comfort of interacting with others who are quite similar. Talking with those who are quite different from ourselves requires more effort to make communication effective. Heterophilous communication may cause cognitive dissonance because an individual is exposed to messages that are inconsistent with existing beliefs, causing an uncomfortable psychological state. Homophily and effective communication breed each other. The more communication there is between members of a dyad, the more likely they are to become homophilous the more homophilous they are, the more likely it is that their communication will be effective. Individuals who break the homophily boundary and attempt to communicate with others who are different from themselves face the frustration of ineffective communication. Differences in technical competence, social status, and beliefs all contribute to heterophily in language and meaning, there by leading to messages that go unheeded.
But heterophilous communication has a special informational potential, even though it may be realized only rarely. As we shall explain in a later section, heterophilous network links often connect two cliques, spanning two sets of socially dissimilar individuals. These interpersonal links are especially important in carrying information about innovations, as is implied in Granovetter’s (1973) theory of “ the-strength-of-weak-ties,” so homophilous communication may be frequent and easy but may not be so crucial as the less frequent heterophilous communication in diffusing innovations.
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