Natural history museum visitors’ use of key concepts and misconceptions in written explanations of evolutionary scenarios

Global challenges like biodiversity loss cannot be understood without essential knowledge about evolution. However, evolution is one of the most misunderstood concepts among the general public. Informal learning environments like natural history museums offer great potential for learning about evolution by showing the latest scientific findings in their exhibitions. But to date, there is a lack of evidence about museum visitors’ understanding of evolution. Therefore, this study aims to identify which evolutionary key concepts and misconceptions are applied by visitors when asked to explain evolutionary scenarios. Using an online survey, visitors ( n = 122) were asked to answer two open-response ACORNS items. Overall, respondents tended to use relatively few key concepts in their responses. Although museum visitors are considered a highly educated group, our surveyed visitors seem to have a poor understanding of evolution. The key concepts and misconceptions identified might help develop future exhibitions and educational programs/activities.