What you are saying about persuasion is important in both directions. Have you every encountered agnotology? It’s part of sociology, and it looks at the creation of unknowing. In the cases you list above, including tobacco and lead, there has been research into the ways that industries marshalled money, resources, and persuasion to create doubt and prevent regulation.
So there’s maybe an additional important heuristic, which is that profit will motivate individuals to ignore harm, and if they have power and money, they will use institutions to persuade people not to notice.
It’s not the entirety of the difficulty, but it is something that ethics might help to correct.
What you are saying about persuasion is important in both directions. Have you every encountered agnotology? It’s part of sociology, and it looks at the creation of unknowing. In the cases you list above, including tobacco and lead, there has been research into the ways that industries marshalled money, resources, and persuasion to create doubt and prevent regulation.
So there’s maybe an additional important heuristic, which is that profit will motivate individuals to ignore harm, and if they have power and money, they will use institutions to persuade people not to notice.
It’s not the entirety of the difficulty, but it is something that ethics might help to correct.