Beliefs About the World's Goodness, Extraversion, and the Experience of Authenticity

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.