I'd like to know if you can give some evidence in the past (say) 20 years that science has discarded or delayed acceptance of a good theory because of 'social conformity'.
Recently: transgenerational epigenetics was considered a violation of the Central Dogma of biology, but since then evidence has piled up and it's now considered a legitimate area of research.
The jury is out in high energy physics where SUSY and string theory elbowed some (possibly) more interesting competitors out of the way. It's too early to tell how that will work out - but it is clear that some approaches get a lot more funding and attention than others, and this seems to be for political rather than objectively scientific reasons.
> Especially in areas requiring higher mathematics
I just don't recognise this at all. Why do you say this? The journals are full of new discoveries, my experience with mathematicians is they're a very open and accommodating bunch (ok, it's not my field, but still)