Creative workers stay morally disconnected by avoiding evidence of their work’s harm

Evidence

Writers and producers are disconnected from the psychosocial effects of the programs they create. Disconnectedness precludes reality testing. Most of them report that they are unaware of existing research findings, they are not especially eager to see them, they doubt the effects can ever be convincingly demonstrated, and network social scientists reassure them that there is no reason for concern. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 872

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: This is a concrete instance of Bandura’s broader construct of moral disengagement via diffusion of responsibility and displacement — the creator never sees the victim.
• QUESTION: Does deliberate avoidance of adverse research constitute a culpable act, or is ignorance genuinely exculpating where the industry actively obscures findings?

Related

• Willful ignorance of one’s effects is engineered by institutional reassurance (similarity 0.87)