Looking for Opinion Leaders: Traditional vs. Modern Measures in Traditional Societies

Since the introduction of the opinion leadership conceptualization,both practitioners and academics have been keenly interestedin its applicability in modern society. Numerous studies havebeen conducted to identify potential opinion leaders, learnof the characteristics distinguishing them from their ‘followers,’and understand how they exert their personal influence to changeopinions and behaviors of the masses. Despite the growing researchon opinion leadership, the identification of appropriate opinionleaders for practical purposes continues to be a challenge.Several methods were used to identify opinion leaders. The existenceof numerous methods and their use in various societies, socialsettings and cultures and the variance across domains of opinionleadership raises questions on the applicability and validityof the modern, advanced measures when applied to other socialsettings. The present study is in fact a first attempt to applythe modern personality strength (PS) scale to a traditionalcommunity. The PS scale was found to be an efficient, valid,and useful instrument to identify opinion leaders in numerousstudies. However, it was always used, tested, and validatedin Western societies (e.g., Germany, USA, and Israel). Whenwe applied the method in the Skukuza community, a small villagein South Africa, the findings revealed the inapplicability ofthe scale in a traditional community. Several factors are suggestedto explain the futility of the PS scale in a traditional society.