One of the aspects of participatory processes that has less often been the subject of systematic comparison is the fate of their outputs: their policy proposals. Even amongst those processes that are more policy-oriented the general impression is that they have only limited impact on final policies of public authorities. One of the possibilities is that politicians and officials cherry-pick from amongst the proposals emerging from these participatory processes, but we know very little about the factors that affect whether these proposals are accepted, rejected or transformed. The paper develops through three main steps. First, we offer a theoretical model that aims to explain both the types of policies and the types of participatory processes that are more likely to be affected positively or negatively by cherry-picking. Second, we sketch a proposal on how to operationalize this model using a dataset of 612 policy proposals emerging from 39 participatory processes developed in three Spanish regions. Third, we analyze the data using a multilevel analysis that helps to identify the most important factors leading to policy adoption.