Authenticity reflects the degree to which people feel like they are expressing who they truly are (i.e., their “true” self). It is a robust correlate of psychological health and well-being. In the current research, we examined how beliefs about the world relate to authenticity as a function of individual differences in extraversion. Across four studies (N = 1449 participants), we found consistent evidence that trait beliefs that the world is fundamentally good positively predict authenticity, especially for people relatively high in trait extraversion. These results suggest that construing the world as a positive, rewarding, and safe place may free people up to express their true selves, particularly for people who are typically more agentic, expressive, responsive to rewards, and sensitive to positive affect (i.e., those high in extraversion). We situate these findings in emerging perspectives on authenticity and discuss, for the first time, how people’s subjective construal of their environments might be pivotal for their experience of being who they truly are.
AdayA.GuoY.MehtaS.ChenS.HallW.GötzF. M.SedikidesC.SchmaderT. (2024). The SAFE Model: State authenticity as a function of three types of fit. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231223597
2.
AnglimJ.HorwoodS.SmillieL. D.MarreroR. J.WoodJ. K. (2020). Predicting psychological and subjective well-being from personality: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(4), 279–323. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000226
3.
AustF.DiedenhofenB.UllrichS.MuschJ. (2013). Seriousness checks are useful to improve data validity in online research. Behavior Research Methods, 45(2), 527–535. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0265-2
4.
CaplanR. D.Van HarrisonR. (1993). Person‐environment fit theory: Some history, recent developments, and future directions. Journal of Social Issues, 49(4), 253–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01192.x
5.
CliftonJ. D.CrumA. J. (2024). Beliefs that influence personality likely concern a situation humans never leave. American Psychologist. Advance online publication.
6.
CliftonJ. D. W. (2020). Testing if primal world beliefs reflect experiences—or at least some experiences identified ad hoc. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1145. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01145
7.
CliftonJ. D. W.BakerJ. D.ParkC. L.YadenD. B.CliftonA. B. W.TerniP.MillerJ. L.ZengG.GiorgiS.SchwartzH. A.SeligmanM. E. P. (2019). Primal world beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 31(1), 82–99. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000639
8.
CliftonJ. D. W.YadenD. B. (2021). Brief measures of the four highest-order primal world beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 33(12), 1267–1273. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001055
9.
CostaP. T.Jr.McCraeR. R. (1995). Domains and facets: Hierarchical personality assessment using the revised NEO personality inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 64(1), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6401_2
10.
DonnellanM. B.OswaldF. L.BairdB. M.LucasR. E. (2006). The mini-IPIP scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2), 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.18.2.192
11.
DormanenR.SandersC. S.Maffly-KippJ.SmithJ. L.VessM. (2020). Assimilation undercuts authenticity: A consequence of women’s masculine self-presentation in masculine contexts. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 44(4), 488–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684320947648
12.
FleesonW.WiltJ. (2010). The relevance of Big Five trait content in behavior to subjective authenticity: Do high levels of within-person behavioral variability undermine or enable authenticity achievement?Journal of Personality, 78(4), 1353–1382. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00653.x
13.
GötzF. M.GoslingS. D.RentfrowP. J. (2022). Small effects: The indispensable foundation for a cumulative psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 17(1), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620984483
14.
HenrichJ.HeineS. J.NorenzayanA. (2010). The weirdest people in the world?The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
15.
LawnR. B.SlempG. R.Vella-BrodrickD. A. (2019). Quiet flourishing: The authenticity and well-being of trait introverts living in the west depends on extraversion-deficit beliefs. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(7), 2055–2075. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-0037-5
16.
LentonA. P.SlabuL.SedikidesC.PowerK. (2013). I feel good, therefore I am real: Testing the causal influence of mood on state authenticity. Cognition & Emotion, 27(7), 1202–1224. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2013.778818
17.
LudwigV. U.CroneD. L.CliftonJ. D. W.RebeleR. W.SchorJ. A.PlattM. L. (2023). Resilience of primal world beliefs to the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Personality, 91(3), 838–855. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12780
18.
Maffly-KippJ.HolteP. N.StichterM.HicksJ. A.SchlegelR. J.VessM. (2023). Civic hope and the perceived authenticity of democratic participation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14(4), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221107261
19.
McCabeK. O.FleesonW. (2012). What is extraversion for? Integrating trait and motivational perspectives and identifying the purpose of extraversion. Psychological Science, 23(12), 1498–1505. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612444904
20.
McCredieM. N.MoreyL. C. (2019). Who are the Turkers? A characterization of MTurk workers using the personality assessment inventory. Assessment, 26(5), 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118760709
21.
MuchinskyP. M.MonahanC. J. (1987). What is person-environment congruence? Supplementary versus complementary models of fit. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 31(3), 268–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(87)90043-1
22.
RiveraG. N.ChristyA. G.KimJ.VessM.HicksJ. A.SchlegelR. J. (2019). Understanding the relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being. Review of General Psychology, 23(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000161
23.
SchmaderT.SedikidesC. (2018). State authenticity as fit to environment: The implications of social identity for fit, authenticity, and self-segregation. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 22(3), 228–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317734080
24.
SchneiderB. (1987). E= f (P, B): The road to a radical approach to person-environment fit. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 31(3), 353–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(87)90051-0
ShermanJ. W. (2024). There is nothing WEIRD about basic research: The critical role of convenience samples in psychological science. American Psychologist. Advance online publication.
27.
SmallenbroekO.ZelenskiJ. M.WhelanD. C. (2017). Authenticity as a eudaimonic construct: The relationships among authenticity, values, and valence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(2), 197–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1187198
28.
SmillieL. D.WiltJ.KabbaniR.GarrattC.RevelleW. (2015). Quality of social experience explains the relation between extraversion and positive affect. Emotion, 15(3), 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000047
29.
SotoC. J.JohnO. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096
30.
StahlmannA. G.RuchW. (2023). Primal world beliefs correlate strongly but differentially with character strengths. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 18(4), 481–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2070532
31.
SuttonA. (2020). Living the good life: A meta-analysis of authenticity, well-being and engagement. Personality and Individual Differences, 153, Article 109645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.10964
32.
Van den BoschR.TarisT. W.SchaufeliW. B.PeetersM. C.ReijsegerG. (2019). Authenticity at work: A matter of fit?The Journal of Psychology, 153(2), 247–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2018.1516185
33.
Van VianenA. E. (2018). Person–environment fit: A review of its basic tenets. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 75–101. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104702
34.
WiltJ. A.SunJ.Jacques-HamiltonR.SmillieL. D. (2023). Why is authenticity associated with being and acting extraverted? Exploring the mediating role of positive affect. Self and Identity, 22(6), 896–931. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2023.2246672
35.
WoodA. M.LinleyP. A.MaltbyJ.BaliousisM.JosephS. (2008). The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization and the development of the authenticity scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(3), 385–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.55.3.385
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
