The child finds the world so complex and varied with so many
unpleasant and pleasant experiences that he soon discovers
the usefulness of his elders in providing him with pleasant
experiences or in warning or guarding him against the unpleasant
whenever he feels uncertain in a new situation. That is, the
child tends to fall back on the authority of the older person
and automatically to accept, up to a certain point, the dogmatic
verdict of his elders as to the desirability or undesirability
of a course of action. Neither the child nor the grown person
is, as a rule, conscious of his acceptance of the thought of
another as his own, but examples of it are evident enough in the
spheres of religion, politics, precedent (in law), fashion, and,
in fact, all of life’s activities.--STUART H. ROWE,
“Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1907.
(170)
=Authority=--See RISK SHIFTED.