After following a white rabbit down a hole in the ground and changing sizes several times, Alice finds herself wondering “Who in the world am I?”

This scene, from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” might resonate with you: In a world that’s constantly changing, it can be challenging to find your authentic self.

I am a social psychologist, and over the past few years my colleagues and I have been conducting research to better understand what it means to be authentic. Our findings provide some valuable insights that not only shed light on what is meant by authenticity – a somewhat vague term whose definition has been debated – but can also offer some tips for how to tap into your true self.

What is authenticity?

In “Sincerity and Authenticity,” literary critic and professor Lionel Trilling described how society in past centuries was held together by the commitment of people to fulfilling their stations in life, whether they were blacksmiths or barons.

Trilling argued that people in modern societies are much less willing to give up their individuality, and instead value authenticity.

But what, exactly, did he mean by authenticity?

Like Trilling, many modern philosophers also understood authenticity as a kind of individuality. For example, Søren Kierkegaard believed that being authentic meant breaking from cultural and social constraints and living a self-determined life. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger equated authenticity to accepting who you are today and living up to all the potential you have in the future. Writing many decades after Heidegger, the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre had a similar idea: People have the freedom to interpret themselves, and their experiences, however they like. So being true to oneself means living as the person you think yourself to be.

Read full story at The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/what-the-new-science-of-authenticity-says-about-discovering-your-true-self-175314

Image Credits: Studies show that feelings of ease and comfort in a given situation – what psychologists call ‘fluency’ – are tied to feelings of authenticity. Tara Moore/Getty Images