The impact of restricting ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ decisions on experienced agency: a functional analysis of human autonomy in institutional context

Abstract Personal autonomy is increasingly challenged by institutional rules and societal demands. This research examines how institutional restrictions on what people do, when they do it, and how they do it influence their experience of agency. Across two experimental studies, participants indicated their experienced agency in everyday scenarios where institutions determined one or more of these three components. The results indicate that experienced agency is most strongly undermined when institutions decide what goal a person must pursue. The more components were restricted, the lower the experienced agency, revealing a cumulative effect. The second study further tested whether framing the achievement of a goal as an opportunity to experience freedom could buffer against these effects. This manipulation did not attenuate the impact of restrictions, suggesting that immediate control over decision-making plays a more critical role in shaping experience of agency than anticipated future freedoms. These findings offer insight into how institutional rules shape people’s experience of agency and may help guide the design of policies that better respect and preserve personal autonomy.