Assessment of an interpretive program for US Coast Guard personnel

The goal of this reseal ch was to measure the effect of a print-based inter pretive program on acceptance by U.S. Coast Guard personnel of an endangere d-species protection program. We used a within-subjects design to measure c hanges in eight survey items measuring beliefs about endangered species. Th ere were significant changes in three items. The initial attitude toward en dangered species was a strong predictor of subsequent response in a "regres sion to the mean effect" in which the least change was found in subjects wi th the highest initial scores on attitude items. Our results suggest that t he print-based program was effective at changing the most highly targeted a ttitudes, but had little effect on more general attitudes.