An illustration of homophilous and heterophilous diffusion networks is provided by a study of two Indian villages (Rao, Rogers, and Singh, 1980). One village was very innovative, while the other village had more traditional norms. Diffusion networks for a new rice variety were more homophilous in the traditional village. The opinion leaders here were elderly and had little formal education. In comparison, the opinion leaders in the innovative village were younger, highly educated, and of a high social caste. In the more tradition village, diffusion network links were highly homophilous on the basis of caste: Brahmins talked to Brahmins and Harijans talked to Harijans. But in progressive village, the new rice variety started at the top pf the social structure and spread rapidly downward across the cast lines through heterophilous network links. These heterophilous network links aided rapid duffusion.