Twice-told tales: Self-repetition decreases observer assessments of performer authenticity.

Abstract

People often engage in self-repetition—repeating the same story, joke, or presentation across different audiences. While behaving consistently has generally been found to enhance perceptions of authenticity, 10 studies demonstrate that performers who are revealed to be self-repeating are perceived as less authentic. We find convergent evidence that this effect is driven by observers’ implicit assumption that social interactions are unique. Self-repetitions violate this assumption, leading observers to judge performers as inauthentic because they are thought to be falsely presenting their performance as unique when it is not. We demonstrate this effect across multiple contexts (politics, entrepreneurship, tour guiding, and comedy), finding that observer awareness of self-repetition decreases perceived authenticity even in situations in which it is normative to repeat a performance and in which repetition is required. The decrease in authenticity is eliminated only when performers overtly acknowledge self-repetition, as performers are no longer viewed as falsely presenting themselves. Moreover, performers who fail to acknowledge their self-repetition are penalized similarly to those who explicitly lie that the performance is unique—an unacknowledged self-repetition is thus seen as a lie by omission. Finally, we recorded repeated job interview responses and found that observers who were unaware of the self-repetition could not discern tangible differences between unrepeated and repeated responses. However, when observers believed that they were viewing a self-repetition, they judged the interviewees as less authentic. Together, our findings provide insight into how people assess the authenticity of self-presentational behaviors and the implicit assumptions that influence social judgments.

Authenticity, rapport and interactional justice in frontline service: the moderating role of need for uniqueness

“…This may be because of service firms too strongly enforcing display rules, leading to a “wear-out” effect for those who frequent a service provider. This is similar to research suggesting that repetition decreases authenticity perceptions (Gershon and Smith, 2020). Therefore, it seems even more important that for frequent customers, FLEs be allowed some flexibility regarding how closely they follow display rules to be able to provide a more authentic experience.…”

“…While service firms may recognize customers have unique attributes (Mascio, 2010), it may not be sufficient to focus only on customers’ NFU. Research has also noted the relationship between uniqueness and authenticity (Lehman et al , 2019; Gershon and Smith, 2020), and more specifically has highlighted the importance of customers’ perceptions regarding FLE authenticity (Lechner and Paul, 2019; Bucher et al , 2018; Yagil and Medler-Liraz, 2013). The broad importance of authenticity has been noted by Brown et al (2003) who suggest, “the search for authenticity is one of the cornerstones of contemporary marketing” (p. 21).…”

Political Authenticity: Conceptualization of a Popular Term

“…The immediacy dimension refers to the construction of authenticity as a direct translation of the inner self to others (Enli 2015;Fordahl 2018;Salisbury and Pooley 2017). In a temporal sense, immediacy in political communication is associated with realtime communication reflecting spontaneous thoughts from a politician's mind without revision or reflection (Gershon and Smith 2020;Shane 2018;Valverde 2018). While over-preparation hinders constructions of authenticity (Gershon and Smith 2020), immediacy of communication is preferred to carefully planned actions, which are often seen as inauthentic.…”

“…In a temporal sense, immediacy in political communication is associated with realtime communication reflecting spontaneous thoughts from a politician's mind without revision or reflection (Gershon and Smith 2020;Shane 2018;Valverde 2018). While over-preparation hinders constructions of authenticity (Gershon and Smith 2020), immediacy of communication is preferred to carefully planned actions, which are often seen as inauthentic. The construction of immediacy is mostly associated with the ability to instantly share information or reply to others when using online communication.…”

“…human" (Seifert 2012: 15). As a result, politicians are perceived as less authentic if their performances appear very controlled and unemotional (Gershon and Smith 2020).…”