Industries outsource research to shift moral accountability to proxy agents

Evidence

A different form of nonresponsibility was widely practiced, however. It involved concealing efforts to shape scientific evidence by shifting responsibility to proxy agents to do the exonerating research and to influence regulatory policies. The industries enlisted scientists and consultants, funded research programs likely to vindicate the industries, and created front organizations to conduct research on their behalf under a cloak of independence and credibility. Outsourcing the research activities shifted the moral predicament to the proxy agents. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1829

Categorization

• SEED: A strong through-line for an essay on the cigarette/tobacco ‘research for hire’ model — front organizations and funded studies as machines for distributing moral weight.
• XREF: Connects to the tobacco industry’s Project Whitecoat and the sugar/lobby ‘science laundering’ documented by Proctor and Oreskes. — connects to: Financial engineering is promoted as outsourcing social problems to entrepreneurs — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 963