Denial pamphlets erode general trust in survivors’ testimony, not just targeted facts.

Evidence

The effect was general, both in content and in who was duped. All of the items in Exhibit 10.1 showed a significant drop, except numbers 6 and 8 (which deal with the ancillary matter of the “international Jewish conspiracy”). Thus, most particularly, Christophersen’s account not only affected beliefs on the specific points he raised (population figures, the source of the burning flesh smell, the Red Cross report), it also significantly lessened these students’ general willingness to accept the testimony of Holocaust survivors, and it affected their belief that the Nazis had tried to destroy the Jewish peo- ple. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3133

Categorization

• SEED: This is a striking demonstration that misinformation attacks the epistemic basis of testimony itself, not merely discrete facts — relevant to current disinformation debates.
• XREF: Connects to the modern debate over how misinformation corrodes trust in institutions and experts.