The Payne Fund Studies were a series of studies of the effect of movies on children's behavior. They were paid for by The Payne Fund, a private foundation. They have been criticized as lacking scientific rigor but were the first attempt to rigorously study the media. They were politically significant and were instrumental in the enforcement of the Hays Code. They are credited with contributing to the demise of Pre-Code film-making in Hollywood.
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Newspapers including The Plain Dealer, New Orleans Times Picayune, Chicago Daily News, Atlanta Journal, Saint Paul Dispatch, the Philadelphia Record and Public Ledger, the Boston American and New York's Daily News, Daily Mirror, and Evening Post all lambasted the studies.[1]