The prevailing beliefs among the people are the erroneous beliefs
It is noted by everyone familiar with the Hadith of the People of the House that the Imams condemned the common beliefs and alluded to the occurrence of distortion in the religion, and that the truth lies with the minority of their followers, who were commanded to be silent, to conceal, and to practice dissimulation to protect them from the oppression of the common people, and due to their knowledge that the rest of the people cannot bear the truth.
Just as the Holy Quran explicitly stated and clarified its condemnation of the majority:
{Or do they say, "In him is madness"? Rather, he brought them the truth, but most of them, to the truth, are averse. 70}1
{Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are not but like livestock; rather, they are more astray in way. 44}2
{And even if We had sent down to them the angels, and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together all things before them, they would not have believed unless God had willed. But most of them are ignorant. 111}3
{And most of them follow not except assumption. Indeed, assumption avails not against the truth at all. Indeed, God is Knowing of what they do. 36}4
There are dozens of other verses that the researcher can review.
The allusion to this matter has appeared in many places in their Hadith (may their glory be exalted). We will mention some of them:
Jabir al-Ju'fi (from him is peace) said to our Master al-Baqir (may his glory be exalted): "To God we belong! How few are my companions." The Master said: "Far from it, O Jabir! Do you know how many of your companions are on the face of the earth?" I said: "O son of the Messenger of God, I used to think that in every town there were between one and two hundred, and in every region between one and two thousand, for we used to think they were more than one hundred thousand in the far reaches and regions of the earth." He said: "O Jabir, your assumption has failed and your opinion has fallen short. Those are the 'detractors' (those who fall short), and they are not your companions."5