Q/A: How does the need to belong and be accepted by others cloud our judgment and keep people from making good choices?

People sometimes have clouded judgment and make bad choices because they have a fear of not having their opinion accepted by others and fear not belonging.
If every one around you believes the same thing and are all agreed except for you, it would be hard to tell them, to argue your case. For example, in the book the Wave, while everyone really excited about Laurie was not and it was very hard for her to argue with her friends and watch as all of them turn against her. But she did in the end, on the other hand other members of the Grapevine opposed the Wave, but in the end feared the Wave too much to even show up at an anti-Wave meeting at her house.
Others like Brian thought the Wave was stupid. He said so when Laurie had not wanted to salute him at the football game. But his judgment was clouded by fear of not being in the same group as everyone so he did not voice his thoughts. He could have told them, but he was of what people would think.
Robert was the complete opposite. the had been weird before that, he simply obeyed orders because he totally got sucked into the Wave. He was the one that everyone was trying to be out of fear. Only Robert didn't know that, he was accept finally because the things that everyone was doing out of fear Robert was totally devoted to, so when it was taken away so was his world.