Statistically, half of the people you know are below average intelligence. Statistically, half of the people you know are below average intelligence. I said that twice because it's important. Think about it, let it sink in.

Now, does it seem surprising that a lot of people you know are influenced by popular media? If you want to learn how the system works you should do the following, in the following order;
a) browse 99chan
b) read cracked (yes, I know, but they do deconstruct the ego very well)
c) watch a load of those "people are herd animals" documentaries - I recommend that one about the weather in particular because it's so striking
d) join pick-up-artist groups in your local area

The most important thing is that you understand how *you* are perceived at every action. Once you've cracked this, human interaction is just a subset of mathematics. Unfortunately, this will probably trigger an existential crisis and make you depressed.

If you can find a niche, exploit it. If you want to know why people take the actions they do, study game theory. Using game theory allows me to boil down all decisions to pluses and minuses, it really helps me to keep necessary objectivity.