Confront and correct misconceptions. Once a misconception
about a subject has been identified by a
visitor study during the planning stage (front-end
survey), directly confronting this misconception
may provoke greater interest. Rand (1990) provides
an example: “They may look empty, but mudflatscrawl with life.” At present there does not appear to
be any studies that have examined the effectiveness
of addressing misconceptions explicitly, although
Borun and her colleagues (Borun, Massey, & Lutter,
1993) have documented the difficulty in overcoming
misconceptions about gravity in a series of exhibits
at the Franklin Institute of Science. Here is another
example: “Not all fishes need a buoyancy regulator;
when a wolf-eel or sculpin swims, it doesn’t go too
far from the bottom. But what do you suppose happens
when a wolf-eel stops swimming?” (Rand,
1990). There is a danger in taking this approach. If
the question is too difficult, the reader may lose interest
and is unlikely to try additional challenges. It
is also important to provide the correct answer once
visitors’ interest has been stimulated.