Understanding the Relationship Between Perceived Authenticity and Well-Being

Abstract

A central tenet of many prominent philosophical and psychological traditions is that personal authenticity facilitates psychological well-being. This idea, however, is at odds with numerous perspectives arguing that it is difficult, if not impossible, to really know one's self, or the true self may not even exist. Moreover, empirical findings suggest that reports of authenticity are often contaminated by positively valenced behavior, further potentially undermining the validity of authenticity measures. Despite these concerns, we argue that subjective feelings of authenticity do uniquely contribute to well-being. Specifically, we argue that the relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being may be understood from a social-cognitive lay theory perspective that we label "true-self-as-guide," that suggests people use these feelings of authenticity as a cue to evaluate whether they are living up to a shared cultural value of what it means to live a good life. We end with a call for future research on the antecedents of perceived authenticity, boundary conditions for the consequences of personal authenticity, and discuss cultural differences in true-self-as-guide lay theories.

Assimilation Undercuts Authenticity: A Consequence of Women’s Masculine Self-Presentation in Masculine Contexts

“…Indeed, our findings align with other work on the misgivings and consequences of the lean-in message (J. Y. Kim et al, 2018; Smith & Huntoon, 2014) and suggest that adhering to masculine norms may lead many women to experience feelings of inauthenticity, which, in addition to thwarting motivation, have detrimental consequences for psychological health and well-being (Rivera et al, 2019). Thus, from a practical standpoint, our findings imply that efforts to improve women’s motivation for, and psychological experiences in, stereotypically masculine contexts should focus on mitigating the connections between masculinity and those contexts first and foremost.…”

“…Our findings highlight a potentially important consequence for some women who express masculine characteristics in occupational settings. The psychological effects of inauthenticity are well-documented and include outcomes such as heightened negative affect, anxiety, depression, and a lack of meaning in life (Rivera et al, 2019). There are interpersonal costs as well.…”

“…Our work also informs counseling and coaching strategies that too often try to “fix the student” to adapt to the demands of a given situation to win the STEM job (Fox et al, 2009) and suggests the very act of “fitting in” may backfire and undermine motivation. This is because people hold lay assumptions that feelings of authenticity should be used as a guide to determine the most satisfying aspiration (Rivera et al, 2019). Application settings that allow for the authentic expression of the self could be one way to help solve the perpetual problem of the loss of undergraduate women in STEM fields (Seymour & Hunter, 2019).…”

“…The self-alienation component reflects a feeling that one does not know and is disconnected from their true self, whereas the authentic living component reflects the feeling of expressing one’s true self (Lenton et al, 2016; Wood et al, 2008). Both of these facets are robustly connected to psychological health and well-being (Rivera et al, 2019). For example, experimentally increasing the feeling of knowing one’s true self leads to greater perceptions of meaning in life (Schlegel et al, 2011), and experimentally undermining the experience of knowing and being connected to one’s true self leads to greater perceptions that one is immoral (Gino et al, 2015).…”

Stalking the True Self Through the Jungles of Authenticity: Problems, Contradictions, Inconsistencies, Disturbing Findings—and a Possible Way Forward

“…• The so-called true self is a guide, not a reality (again, see Rivera et al, 2019). Desired reputation is something one aspires to establish, and a pragmatically very important guide.…”