I believe that people can always choose regardless of their environment. Of course, the environment always influences, and most of the time it is difficult to change all the habits that one brings from there, especially if they are the negative aspects. Despite I think that in general,people have no cure, I also understand that there are exceptions out there. I'm sorry, to be so unoptimistic
Most people's intuition says the same, but it isn't quite the full story. If we someone is conditioned to feel and behave a certain way, making the choice is not very easy and even if the choice is made, changing the behaviour is even harder. So many of us carry so much baggage, and a lot of us think that baggage is good to carry...
There are few still alive more pessimistic than me :)