Is Authenticity Really One of Your Core Values?

You say authenticity matters to you. But you keep compromising it—at work, with family, in how you present yourself online. So you're wondering: is authenticity actually one of your core values, or have you just adopted it because it sounds good? The distinction matters because one will guide your decisions and the other will just make you feel guilty when you don't live up to it.

Who This Is For (and Who It Is Not)

This is for you if you feel a genuine tension between wanting to be authentic and actually living that way. You notice the contradiction. You're not looking for permission to abandon authenticity—you're looking for clarity on whether it's really yours or whether you've inherited it from your culture, your social circles, or the self-help conversations you've absorbed. You suspect the answer might change how you make decisions.

This is also for you if you've tried to live authentically and found it doesn't feel like relief the way it's supposed to. If forcing yourself to "be real" creates more friction than it resolves, you might be living someone else's value. That's worth knowing.

This is not for you if you already know authenticity is not your primary value and you're not bothered by that. There are people for whom authenticity ranks lower than achievement, or security, or connection. That's not a flaw. They're usually at peace with their choices. You're probably not in that group if you're reading this.

What You Will Discover

Schwartz's research on basic human values, tested across 80+ countries, shows that authenticity sits in a specific region of the value landscape. It's adjacent to self-direction and openness to change—meaning people who value authenticity tend to also value freedom and new experiences. But it's in tension with conformity and tradition. Once you see this circumplex structure, you can stop asking whether you "should" value authenticity and start asking whether the values that naturally flow from your life actually require it. Maybe what you thought was inauthenticity is actually a different value winning—one that's equally legitimate.

You'll also discover where the gap lives. Sometimes people say authenticity matters to them because they've never mapped what they actually do when deciding whether to speak up, reveal something about themselves, or take an unpopular stand. Once you see which values actually drive those moments, the answer becomes obvious. Authenticity either shows up or it doesn't. And when it doesn't, you'll know why.

Common Reasons People Wait

The first reason is that you're not sure the framework will apply to you. You might feel like your situation is too specific or your contradictions too personal. But Schwartz's model was built precisely because these value patterns repeat across cultures and circumstances. The structure holds. What changes is which values sit at your center and which sit at the edges. That's the whole point—not everyone has the same center.

The second reason is that you're worried naming this will require you to change. If authenticity isn't actually your core value, you might fear you're admitting defeat or giving yourself permission to be less honest. The opposite is true. Most people who discover authenticity isn't their primary driver find it liberating. They stop performing it and stop judging themselves for the values that actually move them. That usually creates more integrity, not less.

The third reason is that you're not convinced one assessment can answer something you've been uncertain about for years. Fair skepticism. But clarity rarely arrives from more thinking about the problem. It arrives from actually mapping it. You don't need perfect certainty. You need to see the pattern. Once you see it, you'll either recognize yourself immediately or you'll know exactly what still needs to be questioned.

The My Values assessment surfaces your values, ranks them, and shows you where you are and are not living them.