People felt most authentic when they exaggerated their strengths and overlooked their shortcomings

The Authentic Self Is the Self-Enhancing Self: A Self-Enhancement Framework of Authenticity. Corey L. Guenther, Yiyue Zhang, and Constantine Sedikides. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, March 31, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231160653

Abstract: Authenticity refers to behaving in a manner that aligns with one’s true self. The true self, though, is positive. From a self-enhancement standpoint, people exaggerate their strengths and overlook their shortcomings, forming positively-distorted views of themselves. We propose a self-enhancement framework of authenticity, advocating a reciprocal relation between the two constructs. Trait self-enhancement was associated with higher trait authenticity (Study 1), and day-to-day fluctuations in self-enhancement predicted corresponding variations in state authenticity (Study 2). Furthermore, manipulating self-enhancement elevated state authenticity (Studies 3–4), which was associated with meaning in life (Study 4), and manipulating authenticity augmented self-enhancement, which was associated with meaning in life and thriving (Study 5). The authentic self is largely the self-enhancing self.