Adorno treated empirical research findings as instruments of direct political propaganda.

Evidence

The seductiveness of referring to social prejudices if propaganda effects could be achieved was shown by an enthusiastic communication from Adorno, which was received with equal enthusiasm by Horkheimer: As to the groups, a large number, many more than originally planned, are being considered. Sanford thinks this is possible without any difficulties with regard to the budget. … Sanford also suggested doing a study on criminals and prison officers, and I think it’s a splendid idea. Research would be able here to transform itself directly into propaganda, i.e. if it could be reliably established that a particularly high percentage of criminals were extreme anti-Semites, the result would as such already be propaganda. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 399

Categorization

• SHARE: Adorno’s own words calling research ‘directly’ convertible into propaganda — a sharp, quotable tidbit for a critical-theory reader.
• XREF: Complicates the earlier chapter’s framing of the Studies in Prejudice as disinterested scholarship.