I'd be interested in seeing some kind of study on this, because my first instinct is to say the students in an intro class probably have an easier time agreeing with any given piece of information in front of them. Articulating a response is more effort. Since they truly don't care either way, they go for the easiest route that will get them the grades.

Not to stereotype, but I only ever saw college students have informed, complex ideologies if that ideology was also their chosen academic pursuit, like polisci or philosophy students.