How to make better mistakes in public policy

We all make mistakes, a tendency which also extends to those who work in public policy. Despite this seemingly universal tendency, we often only hear about successes. Bucking this trend, Kevin Arceneaux and Daniel Butler describe a recent pilot program aimed at boosting civic engagement in a Midwestern town, based on Get Out the Vote literature. Rather than increasing the number of people who volunteered for town committees as intended, the three tactics they tested actually had no effect or reduced the chances that people would volunteer.