I am coming near the end of Pinker's book, "The Better Angels..." and have come to the section on conformity to unpopular positions. This led me to Michael Macy's Emperor's Dilemma.
I can see why Cofty is calling this required reading. From page 649 of Punker's book, "People not only avow a preposterous belief that they think everyone else avows, but they punish those who fail to avow it, largely out of the belief - also false - that everyone else wants it enforced ... false conformity and false enforcement can reinforce each other."
Has anyone beat me to read the article?
How might a crowd break out of the collective trance?