How Does “Being Real” Feel? The Experience of State Authenticity
2012/07/20 by Alison P. Lenton, Martin Bruder, Letitia Slabu +1 · 237 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Emotions and Moral Behavior #Media Influence and Health #Mood #Narrative #Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior #Philosophy #Psychology #Social psychology #Trait
paper · open access · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00805.x
published in Journal of Personality 81(3), 276-289 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2012/07/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We propose that the experience of state authenticity-the subjective sense of being one's true self-ought to be considered separately from trait authenticity as well as from prescriptions regarding what should make people feel authentic. METHODS: In Study 1 (N = 104), online participants rated the frequency of and motivation for experiences of authenticity and inauthenticity. Studies 2 (N = 268) and 3 (N = 93) asked (local or online, respectively) participants to describe their experiences of authenticity or inauthenticity. Participants in Studies 1 and 2 also completed measures of trait authenticity, and participants in Study 3 rated their experience with respect to several phenomenological dimensions. RESULTS: Study 1 demonstrated that people are motivated to experience state authenticity and avoid inauthenticity and that such experiences are common, regardless of one's degree of trait authenticity. Coding of Study 2's narratives identified the emotions accompanying and needs fulfilled in each state. Trait authenticity generally did not qualify the nature of (in)authentic experiences. Study 3 corroborated the results of Study 2 and further revealed positive mood and nostalgia as consequences of reflecting on experiences of authenticity. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss implications of these findings for conceptualizations of authenticity and the self.
Citations
Cited by
- Distress prospectively predicts higher nostalgia, and nostalgia prospectively predicts lower distress
- On the dynamics of intersectional (in)visibility: Women early career researchers negotiating authenticity at work
- Understanding loss: an existential framework
- What Constitutes Experiences of Autonomy in Digital Technology Use? A (Computational) Scoping Review Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory
- Centering Social Fit, Self-Concept Fit, Goal Fit, and Resource Fit as Core Elements of Students’ Experiences of Belonging at School
- Authenticity, presence of meaning, and struggle with ultimate meaning: Nuanced between-and within-person associations
- Essentialist beliefs about the self predict psychological well-being
- Feeling at Home in Two Cultural Worlds: Bicultural Identity Integration Moderates Felt Authenticity
- Objectification limits authenticity: Exploring the relations between objectification, perceived authenticity, and subjective well‐being
- Brand authenticity: An integrative framework and measurement scale
- Being True to Oneself: Investigating Celebrity Brand Authenticity
- Identifying differences in the experience of (in)authenticity: a latent class analysis approach. [europepmc]
- Reciprocal Relations between Work-Related Authenticity and Intrinsic Motivation, Work Ability and Depressivity: A Two-Wave Study. [europepmc]
- Authenticity and inauthenticity in narrative identity. [europepmc]
- Revisiting the Organismic Valuing Process Theory of Personal Growth: A Theoretical Review of Rogers and Its Connection to Positive Psychology. [europepmc]
- Authenticity as a Resilience Factor Against CV-19 Threat Among Those With Chronic Pain and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. [europepmc]
- The "Self" under COVID-19: Social role disruptions, self-authenticity and present-focused coping. [europepmc]
- To Be Authentic, to Be Eco: Exploring the Link Between Authenticity and Pro-environmental Behavior. [europepmc]
- Authenticity as Best-Self: The Experiences of Women in Law Enforcement. [europepmc]
- Knowing and being known: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and the sense of authenticity. [europepmc]
- Becoming anonymous: how strict COVID-19 isolation protocols impacted ICU patients. [europepmc]
- Dropping the mask: It takes two. [europepmc]
- Do positive emotions prompt people to be more authentic? The mediation effect of gratitude and empathy dimensions on the relationship between humility state and perceived false self. [europepmc]
- The SAFE Model: State Authenticity as a Function of Three Types of Fit. [europepmc]
- Unlocking the self: Can microdosing psychedelics make one feel more authentic? [europepmc]
- The Influence of State Authenticity on the Sense of Meaning in Life of Middle School Students: Evidence from a Daily Diary Investigation and an Authenticity Enhancement Experiment. [europepmc]
- The "Emorality" of Caring: Validation of an Empirical Model of the Moral Feelings of Affective Care in Teaching Communities. [europepmc]
- Measuring honesty in nursing: scale development and validation. [europepmc]
- The impact of cultural frame switching on wellbeing- systematic review. [europepmc]
- Authentic Emotional Displays and Job Burnout Among Preschool Teachers: A Chain Mediation Model of Psychological Capital and Family-Work Conflict. [europepmc]
Related