Prioritizing Along Prototypes: Implicit Citizenship Theories in Decision‐Making at the Frontline

ABSTRACT Public employees are expected to treat all citizens equally; however, due to limited resources and increasing demands, they often simplify their decisions by prioritizing based on social categories. Whereas previous studies have often focused on a few or even a single category at a time, this article employs a broader framework consisting of six citizen prototypes that public employees apply simultaneously in their assessments. The results of a choice‐based conjoint experiment reveal that the previously understudied prototype of a determined citizen—characterized as egoistic, demanding, and assertive—is most influential when public employees need to prioritize, whereas more established prototypes, such as neediness, are less significant. Interestingly, this finding persists regardless of whether the decision has positive or negative consequences for the citizens. Overall, the study advances the socio‐cognitive foundations of state–citizen interactions by framing these encounters as multi‐category decision‐making contexts derived from employees' everyday theories about citizens.