Information cascades in agricultural improvements diffusion
The paper looks at 35 research studies conducted across the United States. It found that there were multiple steps to the “adoption process” of new agricultural ideas. These included awareness, interest, evaluation, testing, and adopting. The study found that the majority of farmers were made aware and started garnering interest mainly from mass media and government agencies talking about the information. Although these sources should be the most trustworthy, they actually found that in terms of evaluation, testing, and adopting the actual ideas, farmers were far more likely to listen to their neighbors and friends, than government agencies or mass media. This is a clear example of an information cascade: even though the farmers already have information about the agricultural improvement, including potential benefits and cost, they are less willing to actually implement it until they have evidence from friends and neighbors that the improvement is real, as well as possible for them.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090408212658/http://www.soc.iastate.edu/extension/presentations/publications/comm/Diffusion%20Process.pdf