Objectives

Many police agencies now find it difficult to recruit and retain officers. To learn more about these issues, we used a factorial survey experiment to test whether recruitment materials inspired by the intergroup communication literature are more effective than standard police recruitment materials.

Methods

We showed vignettes to a sample of 378 communication students. Within the vignettes, we varied how a policewoman described her career and her life. We then measured the extent to which the treatment conditions influenced participants’ general attitudes toward police and specific attitudes toward working in policing.

Results

The treatment did not have significant effects on the two general attitudinal outcomes, but did have significant effects on respondents’ interest in working in policing.

Conclusions

Incorporating principles from the study of intergroup communication can help police agencies attract a larger and more potentially diverse pool of candidates.

中文翻译：

---

通过群体间沟通视角进行警察招募：一项随机实验

 目标

许多警察机构现在发现很难招聘和留住警官。为了更多地了解这些问题，我们使用了析因调查实验来测试受群体间沟通文献启发的招聘材料是否比标准的警察招聘材料更有效。

 方法

我们向 378 名传播学学生的样本展示了小插图。在这些小插曲中，我们改变了一位女警对她的职业生涯和生活的描述。然后，我们测量了治疗条件在多大程度上影响参与者对警察的一般态度和对警务工作的具体态度。

 结果

该治疗对两种一般态度结局没有显著影响，但确实对受访者对警务工作的兴趣产生了显著影响。

 结论

结合群体间沟通研究的原则可以帮助警察机构吸引更大、更潜在多样化的候选人。