A single hostile magazine article can erase nascent support for a group

Evidence

To summarize, after a month at university the students expressed moderate support of feminism, female professors, and Women’s Studies programs. Six weeks later, a short magazine article effectively wiped out that support. While that may bring joy to the editors of the magazine, it troubles me no end. As proved true for Jews and for homosexuals, feminists appear quite vulnerable to those who would promote hostility against them. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3286

Categorization

• XREF: Extends Altemeyer’s own prior demonstrations that Holocaust-denial and anti-gay propaganda shifted student attitudes, showing generalized vulnerability of outgroups to persuasive attack.