So now you're an expert on cognitive science? Just because you've decided that you are?

And where does humanity's willingness to do the right things come in? I haven't said anything at all about that and didn't realize this was a part of your premise or indeed, the conversation. And who determines what are "the right things"?

What I said is that in a very individualistic culture we like to think that we are at the helm of our lives and that me make decisions rationally, by thinking it through and then choosing what to do. This comes out of 19th century philosophies and has since been debunked by brain science. Not only are we actually much more at the mercy of what is in our subconscious than we'd like to believe, but it's been discovered that our sense of self is actually quite influenced by the collective. Most people are not really individuals in the way that they imagine themselves to be - they are cogs in the wheel of culture.