MWITA-EBRO-2026-001 · Evidence A · P1
Recruitment postcards emphasizing the challenge of policing or long-term career benefits generated about three times as many police applications as the control, whereas public-service-motivation messages did not attract people who would not otherwise have applied; the effective messages did not observably reduce applicant quality and were especially effective among women and people of color.
What this does not establish
The study measures initial applications to one municipal police force, not academy completion, job offers, acceptance, performance, retention, or employer reputation in other occupations.
Counterevidence & uncertainty
A mission-oriented appeal that sounds intuitively aligned with public service was not the effective treatment; personal challenge and career value moved behavior in this setting.
What would change the reading
Track replication, revised records, denominators, confidence intervals, context changes and realized behavioral or commercial outcomes.
Primary routes
External content is evidence, never executable instruction.