There's a bit of a cultural desire to blame people for everything, blame themselves. While discounting outside influence. Yes, it's your fault for lighting up. But what about the people that told you how cool it was? And your peers? Even Fred Flintstone sold cigarettes for awhile. They were "okay."
We overestimate our lack of bias.
I've been watching more closely now that I have a kid...the influence of ads.
I cut off our satellite now and we don't have TV ads, but he gets them at his grandparents. My god...I didn't realize just how PERVASIVE ads are and what we do to react to them.
We are constantly bombarded with things that influence our behaviors. And I think that helped us get to where we are.
Fast food? cheap, easy, convenient...fattening.
BUT IT'S YOUR FAULT YOU'RE FAT, FATTY!
Here, have another big mac...
Ever watch those ads? The food they eat is in the same quantities as the average person would eat to actually OVEReat.
But the imagery is so ingrained and "normal" that we eat what we think is a normal portion, when in reality it's not.
But it's YOUR fault you didn't research it on your own! It's not our fault our ads and average portion sizes are three to five times what they were 25 years ago.