ARE there opinion leaders in the sense that some individuals within the general public change their opinions earlier than others? Are there followers in the sense of a lagging public, or are "opinion leaders" the only people discussing and making up their minds on the major issues of the day?The General Electric Company has been conducting interviews with national samples of adults by telephone every quarter since 1964. One purpose of these studies is to alert management to changes in public opinion, providing an early indication of new influences that may affect the company. Beginning in 1972 questions were included to identify respondents whose opinions might be expected to change earlier than the total sample. The Katz/Lazarsfeld opinion leadership questions reported in Personal Influence (1955) were adapted to this purpose. Two basic assumptions about how opinions are formed were implicit in this attempt.First, it was assumed that the process of opinion formation is social. When faced with an unclear situation which requires some Abstract This paper describes an attempt to identify respondents whose opinions change earlier than others. The Katz/Lazarsfeld opinion leadership questions were adapted for use in quarterly surveys conducted by telephone with national samples of adults. Between 1975 and 1978, changes were detected in public attitudes toward six government activities. Recent advisors (opinion leaders) changed from 3 to 14 quarters earlier than nonadvisors. Further, recent advisors within each of several demographic groups changed earlier than others in their group. In at least one case, recent advisors among those with a high school education or less changed earlier than college-educated respondents.Joan S. Black is Manager, Survey Operations, for the General Electric Company at corporate headquarters in Fairficld, Connecticut. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at
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