(Dis)embodied behavioural design? On embodiment’s effect on autonomy and agency
Behavioural public policy Blog — June 5, 2026
In a recent Behavioural Public Policy blog I shared some thoughts about embodiment’s effects on judgment, decision-making, and behavior; its particular impact on agency; and how recognizing embodiment can enrich behavioral practice in general. This piece builds on a presentation I gave at last year’s IBBPA meeting that also informed a paper I’m presenting in early June at the Design Research Society (DRS) conference in Edinburgh.
Behavioural science aims to help people make better, more rational, choices. But decision-making is not just above-the-neck cognitive processing; it also occurs within a specific, embodied human form who experiences the world in a physical way. In this blog post, Ruth Schmidt argues that approaching behavioural challenges from a purely cognitive angle can result in treating them as “brain in a jar” problems. This does not reflect the full reality of how embodiment informs our calculus of risk toward decision-making, our interpretation of what good options or outcomes look like, and our perceived agency and autonomy to choose freely. Instead, we should consider the various ways that embodiment impacts judgment, decision-making, and behaviour when devising and implementing behavioural interventions.