Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/172

 160 the newspapers, or from chance talks here and there with men whom they believe, in some instances, to be better informed than themselves, but who often have used only the same sources of information. Conviction deepens simply from the repetition of the thought.

Then again, we all of us doubtless have our opinions formed from former prejudices, we ourselves unconsciously selecting the facts and statements that fit into these former prejudices, and thus tend to confirm us in our own beliefs. We approve the opinions of the editor of our party organ much more readily than those of his opponent, though the question be an entirely new one. Not a few, probably, of the less well-informed citizens of the community, blindly follow what their party newspaper says, and these perhaps whose opinions are formed almost wholly at second-hand are the ones that hold their opinions most tenaciously and are most positive in the promulgation of them. It is quite possible that the number of voters who have been Protectionists because they were formerly Republicans is greater than the number of voters who have become Republicans because they were Protectionists.

It is probably not too much to say that not 25 per cent, of our adult voting population have deliberately made up an opinion on a public question after anything like a reasonably full and fair study of the facts in the case. Public opinion, then, seems to be a mixture of sense and nonsense, of sentiment, of prejudice, of more or less clearly defined feelings coming from influences of various kinds that have been brought to bear upon the citizens, these influences perhaps being mostly those of sentiment rather than those acting upon the judgment.

If we ask who it is that first gives expression to the leading facts or views that tend to shape public opinion, we find the reply not much more definite or satisfactory. The originators of opinion are different ones on different questions, and perhaps in almost no case can we say that the opinion is one clearly taken from certain individuals. The opinion itself grows in part by reflex action.