Rule #11: Be aware that your opinions, assumptions, and beliefs are often affected by peer group pressure.
A test was once conducted in which people were in booths, where they were asked questions. They *thought* they could see how other people in their test group answered the question, but the answers they saw were actually deliberately wrong. They then had to choose from the correct answer (if they knew it) or the answer that supposedly everyone else had said.
Up to 45% of those tested decided to abandon their own judgement, and answer the way everyone else had answered.
"They [our Founding Fathers] knew that the independent thinker must be permitted to think, regardless of majority disapproval. The tyranny of the majority can, under certain circumstances, be as hsarmful as the tyranny of a despot."
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