University students shifted toward homophobia after reading flimsy propaganda arguments

Evidence

This result disturbs me, because Peters’s arguments, like those of the Holocaust deniers, overwhelm me with their flimsiness and stupidity. They are Hitler’s Big Lie. Yet after reading them, these university students became less in favor of legislation protecting homosexuals from discrimination, became more convinced homosexuals are an abomination in the sight of God, believed more strongly that there was nothing wrong with discrimination and intolerance, and believed more strongly that homosexuals are plotting to kill their opponents. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3257

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why do flimsy, easily-refuted propaganda arguments still shift attitudes among educated university students? The mechanism worth chasing.
• SEED: An essay on why ‘obviously false’ propaganda still works — what makes the persuasiveness of an argument independent of its factual soundness.