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Innovation Through ImitationGladstone, Eric; Brashears, Matthew E.Innovation, Diffusion, and the Adoption of TechnologyDiffusion, Innovation, Cognitive Networks, CreativityTHURS.PM1Current explanations for innovation largely rest on the assumption that humans attempt to differentiate themselves from one another. Yet sixty years ofresearch strongly suggests that humans exhibit an overwhelmingly tendency to conform. We attempt to reconcile these two competing perspectives by settingforth an “innovation by imitation” account of innovation. We propose an error accumulation and information mutation model of innovation which rests on 1)the human tendency to conform, and 2) the human inability to always accurately receive and transmit information. The attempt to be like one anotherultimately results in innovation as actors accidently create new information flows. We propose that this information mutation→innovation hypothesishas predictable consequences in differing types of information networks. We argue that certain types of networks will either promote or retard informationmutation and innovation. Paradoxically, we also submit that the very same types of networks that prohibit mutation will, at some threshold, actually promoteinformation mutation. Through computer simulations and laboratory/online experiments, our goal is to be able to predict the likelihoods of innovation within agiven network structure, and to predict the likelihood that a given agent may innovate or receive corrupted information.