Autonomy as civic motivation: associations between autonomy and civic duty, civic action, and voting

Abstract Autonomy is a central value in American democracy, but is not well integrated into civic and political engagement research as a psychological source of motivation. In this preregistered study, we applied a Self-Determination Theory framework to investigate autonomy as a motivator for civic action across four U.S. elections ( N = 2480). We assessed autonomy both as a trait and a context-specific motivational state and found that both trait and context-specific autonomy were related to stronger civic attitudes, intentions to vote, and actual voting behavior. In contrast, extrinsic or controlled motivations were weakly or not related to these outcomes. This study provides robust and replicable evidence for the role of autonomy in civic and political engagement. It extends our theoretical understanding of what motivates voting and civic engagement and offers practical insights that can be applied to increase the effectiveness of voter mobilization strategies.