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The Authenticity Complex: Why Just Being Yourself Isn’t Enough
Not yet published
Expected 8 Jan 26'No one asks better questions, or comes up with more intriguing answers,' Malcolm Gladwell, author of THE TIPPING POINT
In her critically acclaimed bestseller The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar transformed our understanding of how we make choices in a world of growing complexity. Now, in The Authenticity Complex, Iyengar, a blind, Indian-American female social scientist, dares to ask the questions many of us seek to avoid - 'Who am I?' And, given who I am, what should I choose?
We most often associate the following words with real, true, honest, genuine, original. Somewhat less frequently they pure, natural, reliable-or just good. But when they evaluate authenticity, they often do so on very different terms. And when they explain their reasoning, they may refer to still different, even contradictory, criteria. The variations we see in the lab reflect the multitudinous nature of authenticity and demonstrate that it is, for lack of a better word, slippery.
Using techniques developed and tested in her own lab, this extraordinary work will show readers how to think bigger about authenticity and creatively construct a larger, more authentic sense of who they really are. The experiments attest that authenticity is powerful and delicate, possible to organize and spontaneously occurring. It's steady and constant but also unrestrained and boundless.
In her critically acclaimed bestseller The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar transformed our understanding of how we make choices in a world of growing complexity. Now, in The Authenticity Complex, Iyengar, a blind, Indian-American female social scientist, dares to ask the questions many of us seek to avoid - 'Who am I?' And, given who I am, what should I choose?
We most often associate the following words with real, true, honest, genuine, original. Somewhat less frequently they pure, natural, reliable-or just good. But when they evaluate authenticity, they often do so on very different terms. And when they explain their reasoning, they may refer to still different, even contradictory, criteria. The variations we see in the lab reflect the multitudinous nature of authenticity and demonstrate that it is, for lack of a better word, slippery.
Using techniques developed and tested in her own lab, this extraordinary work will show readers how to think bigger about authenticity and creatively construct a larger, more authentic sense of who they really are. The experiments attest that authenticity is powerful and delicate, possible to organize and spontaneously occurring. It's steady and constant but also unrestrained and boundless.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication January 8, 2026
2 people want to read
About the author
Sheena Iyengar
4Ìýbooks134ÌýfollowersSheena Iyengar is the S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia University and a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award. She holds an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of Business and a doctorate in social psychology from Stanford University. Her work is regularly cited in periodicals such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and TIME.
Considered one of the world's experts on choice, Sheena has written her own book, The Art of Choosing. In the book, she explores questions such as why choice is powerful, and where its power comes from; the ways in which people make choices; the relationship between how we choose and who we are; why we are so often disappointed by our choices; how much control we really have over our everyday choices; how we choose when our options are practically unlimited; and whether we should ever let others choose for us, and if so, whom and why.
Considered one of the world's experts on choice, Sheena has written her own book, The Art of Choosing. In the book, she explores questions such as why choice is powerful, and where its power comes from; the ways in which people make choices; the relationship between how we choose and who we are; why we are so often disappointed by our choices; how much control we really have over our everyday choices; how we choose when our options are practically unlimited; and whether we should ever let others choose for us, and if so, whom and why.
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