As you might know if you’ve read some of my other blogs, authenticity, or the sense of being true to ourselves, is one of my main areas of research. We all have a story we tell ourselves (an autobiography) that is based on our memories and this story helps us know whether we’re being true to ourselves or not. One of my colleagues at Waikato University, Prof Maryanne Garry, is an expert in human memory and she got me thinking one day about how our memories of times we were authentic might function.
Autobiographical memories function in three ways: they help us to develop our identity, to problem solve and plan for the future, and to build social bonds with others. My Masters student Jason Render and I analysed some archival data to find out which of these three functions are used when people recall times they were authentic or inauthentic at work.
We found that when people recall times they were authentic at work, they tend to use the memory to build their sense of identity and knowledge about themselves. Interestingly, memories of times they were inauthentic served a useful purpose too. In this case, recalling a time they were not true to themselves tended to serve a directive function: helping them to see how to plan for future situations and solve problems.
So although it can be an uncomfortable experience to feel we can’t be ourselves at work, recalling these times is not something to be avoided. It can actually help us to direct our future responses. Although providing only preliminary results, this study begins to show us how our memories of being (in)authentic can work to develop our sense of who we are.