Joining the force — German police students’ dynamic development during their training

Police officers encounter the darker sides of human behavior on a daily basis, including crime and challenging interactions with civilians. Moreover, officers are bound by strict social hierarchies within the police force. Survey evidence, mostly from North America, suggests that such exposure can lead to substantial attitude change in police recruits, especially when combined with a strong “police culture.” These changes often tilt toward more authoritarian and less prosocial orientations. However, most existing evidence relies on cross-sectional data and cannot capture within-person change. We extend this work to a German context using a truly longitudinal design. New police students were surveyed three times during their first year of training, from entry through their initial field experiences. We measured a range of attitudes and personality traits, including social dominance orientation, HEXACO’s honesty-humility, and general trust, and compared them with two reference groups: a large sample from the German population and first-year university students surveyed at the same times with identical instruments. Our results reveal notable changes over time. Police recruits start their training with higher-than-average levels of honesty-humility and trust, suggesting a more positive social outlook. However, they also show higher SDO, which increases further across waves, while other measures decline, gradually converging toward population averages. These findings suggest that hierarchical environments, and repeated exposure to high-stress social encounters may shape attitudes during early police socialization. Beyond their academic implications, our results offer practical insights for designing police training programs that help sustain recruits’ prosocial motivations and trust in society.