Social System Homophily as a Function of Communication.

This paper proposes that a study be done in the area of diffusion of innovations using a recently developed communication methodological tool, metric multidimensional scaling (MDS). An argument is made for using MDS to measure cultural concepts which are shared by members of a society. A definition of homophily-heterophily is presented as the canonical correlation between the spaces of two different social systems. The proposition is presented that as two societies interact and communicate they will become more homophilus over time. (RB)