I am trying to remember the name of a book or story by, I think, Connie Willis. The moral was judge not lest ye be judged, or something to that effect. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Could it have been Bellwether? The main character studies fads in society, and one of the things that bugs her is the shifting scapegoats - from Communists to hippies to smokers to whatever. Her company wants her and her research partner to capture a specific grant, even though the grant is awarded apparently at random by a completely anonymous source, there are no published guidelines, and the winners have no idea they were in competition.
The main character and her partner win the grant after they’ve been fired by their research corporation because they treated the lab assistant, a smoker, with compassion and didn’t make her smoke out in the middle of a midwestern winter.