Television networks deliberately avoided researching their programs’ effects on children.

Evidence

However, during congressional hearings, efforts to determine the size of the budget for research on the effects of exposure to televised violence drew a blank. Oliver Treyz was unaware of any such studies at ABC: “We have not, to my knowledge, expended any funds on the specific reaction of children to action-adventure shows” (Senate Hearings, 1962). Joseph Klapper spoke in hypothetical terms about the willingness of CBS to do so (Baker & Ball, 1969). Neither respondent showed much in the way of concerned curiosity or a sense of obligation to find out how their programs were affecting viewers. Keeping the knowable unknown is the genuine protective form that self-deception takes. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 886

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• APHORISMS: ‘Keeping the knowable unknown is the genuine protective form that self-deception takes’ — a compressed, reusable insight about how institutions maintain deniability.
• CANDY: The image of broadcast executives testifying under oath that they’d spent nothing on studying how their shows affect kids is a compact courtroom anecdote with a moral sting.

Related

• Institutions protect harmful practices by deliberately avoiding studying their effects (similarity 0.89)