"Unfortunately our minds sometimes form the wrong connections or tell the wrong story from the data it perceives."
Everything basically is influential... that's the basics for hypnotism,first you introduce 'facts' then purposely mix em with something false but people would still buy it.. it's everywhere, just look at media plus the power of repetition.

"Tragically it is the weak- and small-minded that are most vulnerable to its effects."

I think the perfect example of your title is the illusion of money's worth.. seriously, the whole economic system is making the vast majority think and therefore believe that most things in the world has a tag price...in this context, it wouldn't surprise me if people would accept a world price for the air we breathe per minute.

one key is missing though, the human brain is not only capable of cognition processes...well especially if you take into account language acquisition, plus how people develop their morals... t's been proven empirically that people learn through emotions (Damasio's 'we feel therefore we learn'). And its true, coz that's basically how we construct our own personal realities.. we make sense out of everything around us using our own individual minds and how we presently feel. It's a shame though that mainstream education encourages us to have a standardized way of thinking and putting individual feelings way out of school boundaries, isnt it true when u think about any mainstream curricula? Which only causes imbalance in our nature, we're unique.. isn't it a proof that our DNA's are basically the same but that small percentage makes all the difference? hell even twins who are genetically the same are still different persons.

people need to wake up and think out of the box... the society right now is basically withholding that freedom :D