Authentic for Thee But Not for Me: Perceived Authenticity in Self-Control Conflicts

Self-control and self-expression

Does self-control express or suppress our true selves? This article reviews the emerging body of literature on the effect of self-control on authentic self-expression from the actors' (self-signaling) and the observers' (other-signaling) perspective. While actors can experience self-control as either expression or suppression of the self, individual differences in decision-making or personal values can predict when self-control is more likely to be experienced in one way or the other. Self-control also signals to observers both positive (e.g., competent, trustworthy, powerful) and negative (e.g., inauthentic, robotic, less warm) identities, with specific inferences depending on the context (e.g., work vs. fun). Overall, the relationship between self-control and self-expression is more nuanced than earlier research suggested, and several open questions await further investigation.

Don't Worry About Being You: Relations Between Perceived Authenticity and Mental Health are Due to Self-Esteem and Executive Functioning

Numerous studies show that perceived authenticity is a reliable predictor of mental health outcomes. To expand on these studies, we examined whether such relations could be due to perceived authenticity's confounding with both self-esteem and executive functioning. A representative sample of US participants (N = 446; Mage = 46.10; 51.1% female; 78.0% White) completed measures of perceived authenticity, self-esteem, executive functioning, and various indicators of mental health (e.g., subjective wellbeing, depression). At the bivariate level, perceived authenticity had a positive, large correlation with a mental health composite. However, after controlling for self-esteem and executive functioning, this relationship became nonsignificant and trivial in size. The findings extend basic understanding of how self-relevant constructs contribute to mental health and suggest advice for individuals looking to capitalize on evidence linking perceived authenticity to mental health benefits: Build a strong base of self-worth and exercise agency.

Liking Predicts Judgments of Authenticity in Real-Time Interactions More Robustly Than Personality States or Affect

We conducted three studies involving small group interactions (N = 622) that examined whether Big Five personality states, affect, and/or liking predict judgments of others' authenticity. Study 1 (n = 119) revealed that neither self-rated personality states nor affect predicted other-rated authenticity. Instead, other-rated liking was the only predictor of other-rated authenticity. Study 2 (n = 281) revealed that other-rated personality states and affect were significant predictors of other-rated authenticity, but other-rated liking was a more important factor in predicting other-rated authenticity than specific behaviors or affect. Based on these results, Study 3 (n = 222) examined whether experimental manipulation of likability had a causal effect on other-ratings of authenticity. Likable actors were indeed judged as more authentic. Together, this suggests that we judge people we like as more authentic and that likability may be more important than the "objective" content of behavior.

Reciprocal relationships between self-control and self-authenticity: a two-wave study

Both self-control and self-authenticity are critical to individuals' mental health and social adjustment, but their relationship has received little attention. Research demonstrates that exerting self-control could help individuals achieve true self and might be promoted by perceiving authenticity. Accordingly, this study utilized a longitudinal design and investigated the temporal relationship between self-control and self-authenticity in a large sample of 2,982 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 17.53, SD = 0.84). Correlation analysis showed that participants possessing higher self-control were associated with greater self-authenticity. Cross-lagged path analysis revealed a reciprocal relationship between self-control and self-authenticity over time. Moreover, bivariate latent change score model indicated that self-control predicted an increase in self-authenticity across time, and vice versa. Overall, this study advances our understanding and suggests that restraining temptation and impulse can promote adolescents' authenticity, and that the experience of authenticity, in turn, facilitates their self-regulation.