Connecting education and persuasion: insights from cognitive structure among college students in a pollinator conservation course

There are long traditions of research on the implications of cognitive structure for education and persuasion, respectively. Even though both are vital for understanding pro-environmental attitude and behavior change, however, these literatures have rarely been brought into conversation. As a preliminary step in this direction, the present study explored connections between cognitive structure and behavior change among college students participating in a semester-long course on bee conservation. Concepts central to students’ thinking about bee conservation were identified in two ways: via associative attitude networks and via semantic networks. Attitude network structure was fairly stable, but showed some notable changes due to class participation. Furthermore, both networks were partially successful in identifying concepts strongly associated with behavior change over time, though each also made incorrect predictions. With continued refinement, the results suggest that a structure-focused approach may have promise as a foundation for improved strategies to promote pro-environmental behavior change.