A demonstrated method employed by corporations to obfuscate facts and avoid responsibility is the manipulation of academic research. Manipulation of research can take the form of misrepresenting the results of research that were otherwise unbiased, or hiring researchers who fail to disclose a conflict of interest and produce research that contradicts conventional wisdom.
CASE STUDY: Monsanto ghost-writing and funding scientific research
The most famous example of this strategy is the long-running campaign by tobacco companies to discredit claims that cigarettes are unhealthy by hiring their own scientists to produce highly biased and/or misleading research. Fossil fuel, chemical and pharmaceutical companies have adopted similar tactics in campaigns to evade responsibility for harms, by clouding public and political opinion with inaccurate research.