Highlight the role of community in decision making. The Role of the Community in Decision Making: It also became clear that although the earlier research had allowed for the study of individual decisions, it did not permit study of decision making on a community level. The next study introduced the notion of diffusion, or widening communication of a new idea, over time through the social structure of a community (Katz, 1957). The diffusion study examined how medical doctors make decisions to adopt new drugs. All doctors in several specialties in four Midwestern cities were interviewed. Besides the usual demographic data (age, medical school attended, etc.) and data about attitudes, prescription of drugs, exposure to information sources and influence, and other details, the doctors were asked to name the three colleagues they were most apt to talk with about cases, the three they were most apt to seek information and […]
The Role of the Community in Decision Making
