Motivational depletion conditions efficacy-based interventions in political ambition

Abstract Self-efficacy is a central precursor of political ambition, yet efficacy-centered interventions designed to encourage capable citizens to run for office often produce mixed, null, or even counterproductive effects. This study argues that the effects of efficacy prompts depend on recipients’ motivational depletion. Using original data from a four-arm randomized lab-in-the-field experiment in Ukraine ( N = 1,381), this paper examines whether pre-treatment demotivation moderates the effects of self-, collective-, and combined efficacy prompts on willingness to run for office. The results indicate that efficacy-based encouragement becomes less effective as baseline demotivation rises, with the strongest attenuation appearing under the combined efficacy prompt: a one-standard-deviation increase in baseline demotivation was associated with an approximately 0.2-standard-deviation reduction in the treatment effect on the office-seeking index. In descriptive decompositions, this pattern appears most clearly for low perceived personal potential, negative future expectations, and more demanding political offices. The findings are consistent with a psychological boundary condition on efficacy-based interventions: when citizens lack a minimal sense of unrealized capacity and future attainability, efficacy-boosting messages may be processed not as resources but as demands. Efficacy-oriented policies and democratic education programs may thus have a limited effect on motivationally depleted populations.