This generalization indicates a general tendency for followers to seek information and advice about innovations from opinion leaders perceived as more technically component. When heterophily occurs, it is usually in the direction of individuals seeking a greater degree of competency, but not too much greater. We should not forget that the general pattern of interpersonal networks in the diffusion process is one of homophily. Such homophily means that the dyadic followers of opinion leaders usually learn appropriate lessons about an innovation through their ties with near peer opinion leaders. But these homophilous diffusion networks also slow the percolation of an innovation through the structure of a social system.