Are you a real fan, or just jumping on the bandwagon?

The Bandwagon Fallacy is defined in the book as "the error of assuming that a claim is correct just because people believe it. It is an error because popular opinion isn't a dependable guide to the accuracy of an assertion." I chose to elaborate my feelings on this matter because I thought it was interesting and the book only gave one short paragraph in explanation.
During the 5th the world's population thought that the world was flat. In 1500AD we still believed that the earth revolved around that sun. Up until 1865 African Americans were thought of a property that could be bought and sold and it wasn't until 1920 that women were thought competent enough to vote. These are some of the greatest misjudgments is human history and the Bandwagon Fallacy had a major part in fueling their flame.
It's not enough to just make the assumption that an idea is correct just because a large number of people believe it to be. Consider this, Roughly ninety percent of all Americans that vote vote along the same party lines as their parents, while this might not be totally Bandwagon related, growing up in a family would imprint you with similar beliefs, I still believe it has a bearing here. That is that a Bandwagon idea doesn't need an extraordinarily large crowd to spread. I think that its influence as opposed to its relative size just needs to be strong enough.
We as individuals need to be more careful now than ever. With the growing population and ease of transferring ideas over the internet we are still very susceptible to negative bandwagons. We need to use critical thinking to make sure we realize that Muslim doesn't equal tourism and that Justin Bieber's hair definitely doesn't make him talented!