The workers’ inquiry findings were suppressed partly for their politically damaging implications

Evidence

One of the findings of the inquiry, for example, would have come as no surprise to a reader of Fromm’s Development of Christian Dogma. Left-wing political attitudes could be shown to be a form of vicarious satisfaction for workers who had otherwise moved into psychological conformity with class society. If published and presented with scientific rigour, the observation that the majority of politically left-wing workers were similar in character to all the other members of bourgeois-capitalist society would not have made the left more watchful and more united; instead, it would have made the right more confident of its victory. For this reason, reservations about methodological faults or uncertainties had to be taken more seriously. In view of this situation, Horkheimer’s tendency was quite soon to see the significance of the Institute’s first inquiry as lying principally in the way it developed a methodological apparatus, with results to be presented only after further research and an extension of its empirical basis. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 475

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels to modern suppression/suppression-adjacent cases where politically inconvenient empirical findings get shelved for methodological cover. — connects to: Anti-Semitic findings about American workers were suppressed to spare American opinion — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 675; The Institute suppressed Fromm’s Weimar worker study for ideological reasons — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 716; The Institute suppressed Jewish-psychology research out of sensitivity and political caution — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1550 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Semitic findings about American workers were suppressed to spare American opinion #exemplifies (0.92) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 675
• The Institute suppressed Fromm’s Weimar worker study for ideological reasons #expands (0.88) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 716
• The worker survey was under-analyzed partly as a response to discouraging early findings #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 474
• The Institute’s worker research stalled partly out of reaction to troubling early results #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 474
• The Institute suppressed Jewish-psychology research out of sensitivity and political caution #exemplifies (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1550
• Horkheimer suppressed Fromm’s worker study as both too Marxist and not Marxist enough #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 195
• The Institute suppressed overt politics in favor of indirect critical presentation #qualifies (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 539
• Personal quarrels and practical losses suppressed publication of a prescient study #corroborates (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 393
• National character research declined partly because of its political danger #exemplifies (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 345