What can persuasion research tell us about conceptual change that we did not already know?

The chapters included in this special issue are innovative in their attempt to bring together research on persuasion with research on conceptual change. Although persuasion and conceptual change are not similar in all respects, they both involve belief change. They also both require that we better understand the variables that make a text persuasive and thus influence the reader to change his/her beliefs. These chapters are instrumental in bringing about three important characteristics of persuasive text that can also be useful in inviting conceptual change. These characteristics are the comprehensibility, clarity and credibility of the text; the importance of explicitly addressing the readers’ prior beliefs; and affective and motivational factors.