Theory and research converge to suggest that authenticity predicts positive psychological adjustment. Given these benefits of authenticity, there is a surprising dearth of research on the factors that foster authenticity. Five studies help fill this gap by testing whether self-compassion promotes subjective authenticity. Study 1 found a positive association between trait self-compassion and authenticity. Study 2 demonstrated that on days when people felt more self-compassionate, they also felt more authentic. Study 3 discovered that people experimentally induced to be self-compassionate reported greater state authenticity relative to control participants. Studies 4 and 5 recruited samples from multiple cultures and used a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design, respectively, and found that self-compassion predicts greater authenticity through reduced fear of negative evaluation (Study 4) and heightened optimism (Study 5). Across studies, self-compassion’s effects on authenticity could not be accounted for by self-esteem. Overall, the results suggest that self-compassion can help cultivate subjective authenticity.

People from different cultural backgrounds vary in what they perceive as violations of relational boundaries, and how they react to such violations. Muslim cultures are diverse and include nearly one in four people in the world; yet we know little about relational norms and boundaries in these contexts. We begin to address this gap by studying “gheirat,” a moral-emotional experience ubiquitous in Muslim Middle Eastern cultures and closely related to honor. Across four mixed methods studies on Iranian adults (N = 1107), using qualitative interviews, scenario- and prototype-based surveys, and an experiment, we found that three types of boundary violations elicit gheirat: perception of harm or insult to namoos (i.e., the extended self), violations by namoos (often with a sexual or relational nature), and violations by a third-person towards namoos. Each type has a distinct pattern of complex emotional response ranging from self-blame to outward hostility towards the violator. Contrary to folk theories of gheirat, we did not find support for the idea that gheirat is a predominantly male experience. However, investigating the signaling value of gheirat revealed that male (but not female) gheirat expressers are perceived as desirable targets of affiliation. We discuss similarities and differences between gheirat and constructs like romantic jealousy and honor, how social practices reward and sustain gheirat, and the practical implications for inter-cultural contact between people from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds.

Creativity has many benefits, such as workplace performance and life satisfaction. Three studies extended a small body of work to examine whether awe was associated with creative personality, convergent creativity, and everyday creative behaviors (N = 1,844). Study 1 demonstrated that trait awe was associated with a more creative personality among adolescents and adults in the U.S., Iran, and Malaysia. Study 2 showed that trait awe was associated with an increased likelihood of solving the Duncker's Candle Problem. Finally, Study 3 found that on days when participants felt more daily awe than they typically do, they reported having done more everyday creative activities. The effects of awe were independent of amusement (Studies 1-3) and Big Five personality (Study 3). Moreover, we found that daily curiosity explained the link between daily awe and daily creativity in Study 3. These results are the first to demonstrate a consistent link between awe and complementary measures of creativity. The discussion focuses on the limitations of the present work as well as implications of the present results for future research on awe and creativity.

Spending money on experiences, compared to materials, is often associated with more happiness. This experiential advantage, however, is developed based on samples from Western cultures. To investigate the boundaries of this effect, we studied participants from three divergent cultures (Iran, Malaysia, and the US; N = 1718), and examined the benefits of different purchase types across material- experiential and solitary-social dimensions. Results indicated a cross-culturally robust experiential advantage in terms of affiliative outcomes (i.e., positive other-focused emotions and relational enhancement), even when we accounted for the sociality of the purchases. However, the results were less consistent with the experiential advantage in terms of happiness and self-focused outcomes (i.e., self-focused emotions and self-elevation). Interestingly, experiential-solitary purchases were associated with stronger self-focused benefits among Iranians. We discuss possible explanations for this effect and offer recommendations for future research. Data and analysis code are publicly available at https://osf.io/n39gj/.

Spending money on experiences, compared to materials, is often associated with more happiness. This experiential advantage, however, is developed based on samples from Western cultures. To investigate the boundaries of this effect, we studied participants from three divergent cultures (Iran, Malaysia, and the United States; N = 1,718) and examined the benefits associated with different purchase types across material–experiential and solitary–social dimensions. Results indicated a cross-culturally robust experiential advantage in terms of affiliative outcomes (i.e., positive other-focused emotions and relational enhancement), even when we accounted for the sociality of the purchases. However, the results were less consistent with the experiential advantage in terms of happiness and self-focused outcomes (i.e., self-focused emotions and self-elevation). Interestingly, experiential-solitary purchases were associated with stronger self-focused benefits among Iranians. We discuss possible explanations for this effect and offer recommendations for future research. Data and analysis code are publicly available at https://osf.io/n39gj/