A factor ineffective alone may be decisive within a full causal constellation

Evidence

A combination of influences is required to produce a violent act that otherwise would not have occurred if any of the key contributing elements were missing. When behavior is activated only by a particular constellation of determinants, those factors that prove ineffective alone or even in partial combination may play a decisive role in the unique constellation. In the bomb-extortion incidents triggered by the airing of The Doomsday Flight, the televised influence was an essential but insufficient cause alone. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 882

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 882