Understanding the young mind.

The importance of bees and conservation practices can be embedded in individual minds from early childhood days. This makes it imperative to investigate the young mind and understand what they think of bees and how that can be improved upon. A group of American young adults and teenagers were asked to ponder on their associations with honeybees.

The teenagers, although moderately knowledgeable about bees and beekeeping activities, focused on:

· tangible and concrete positive associations like honey and beehives

· intangible negative associations that were symbolic (abstract comments) like ‘sting’ and ‘fear’

· intangible positive associations that were:

o hedonic (fun and adventure comments) like ‘cuteness,’ ‘cool’

o experiential (comments of sensory nature) like ‘fuzzy’

· associations related to the usefulness aspect of bees like ‘pollination.’

The young adults on the other hand made a significantly greater number of tangible associations. Their intangible negative associations were mainly symbolic and significantly lower. While their intangible positive associations were all experiential like ‘sweet.’

Based on the findings, teenagers should be encouraged to attend more informational sessions on bees to reduce their fear. While young adults should be encouraged to think more abstractly about bees which would lead them to ponder the functionality and importance of bees and the associated world problems, and perhaps engage in conservation activities.

My virtual infographics from the ESA, ESC, and ESBC Joint Annual Meeting (2022):