Originally, race was one of many topics the firm began exploring. This in itself was not unusual, as racial conflicts have played a significant role in American culture and history. Psychologists on the projects initially assumed this research would be used either for passive information about the biases of the population or even to help reduce their effects. But, lacking the kind of traditional ethics review that is a prerequisite of academic research, there was never consideration of how this research could be misused—no one thought about how this could go wrong.
