ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the influences which the life of the group brings to bear upon the individual's mind, and the counter-influences exercised by the ideas of other groups or of the individuals belonging to them. The least stimulating group is usually the one which is most homogeneous, or composed of persons of the same sex and class and age. The difficulty is almost entirely due to the natural inertia of established ideas in any social group, upon the homogeneity of the group, and the conservative influence which every homogeneous group brings to bear upon all its members by reason of the astounding control it exercises over their minds. The opposition to the suggestion of change is due throughout to feelings connected with various forms of a general instinct of self-preservation; the attractiveness of an idea also depends upon its relation to instincts or impulses on the part of the social members who are the determining factors of change.
