The famous psychologist Solomon Asch conducted an interesting experiment in 1951 in which he found out how free a person really is in his choice, despite the opinion of the majority.
The people tested were told that they would take some very simple vision tests. They were then shown pictures and each was asked simple questions with very obvious answers. The main trick was that all but one test subject was a dummy, and their main task was to give the same "wrong" answer to a particular question at the signal of the psychologist.
For example, there were three sticks in the drawing, one of which was obviously the biggest. When the subject gave the correct answer to the question "which is the longest stick," everyone else said the middle stick. The main test subject almost always questioned his opinion and joined the majority.
The conclusion is that no matter how individual we are, public opinion has a direct influence on our opinions, some more than others, some less - but it certainly does.
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