Who Should the Military Recruit? The Effects of Institutional, Occupational, and Self-Enhancement Enlistment Motives on Soldier Identification and Behavior

The U.S. military spends millions of dollars and substantial institutional effort to understand enlistment motives and appropriately target incentives, recruiting effort, and marketing to prospective members. Similarly, researchers have worked for decades to identify, understand, and conceptualize enlistment motives. Much less effort has been made to understand the effect enlistment motives/goals have on individuals after they join. This...