Attachment, Authenticity, and Honesty: Dispositional and Experimentally Induced Security Can Reduce Self- and Other-Deception

Attachment security is hypothesized to promote authenticity and sincerity, or honesty, whereas insecurity is hypothesized to increase various forms of inauthenticity and dishonesty. The authors tested these ideas in 8 studies of dispositional and situational attachment insecurities and their influen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2010-05, Vol.98 (5), p.841-855
Main Authors: Gillath, Omri, Sesko, Amanda K, Shaver, Phillip R, Chun, David S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Anxiety
Attachment
Attachment Behavior
Authenticity
Biological and medical sciences
Cheating
Deceit
Deception
Dishonesty
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Honesty
Human
Humans
Insecurity
Male
Object Attachment
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Priming
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self
Sincerity
Social interaction
Social psychology
Trust
Truth Disclosure
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Summary:Attachment security is hypothesized to promote authenticity and sincerity, or honesty, whereas insecurity is hypothesized to increase various forms of inauthenticity and dishonesty. The authors tested these ideas in 8 studies of dispositional and situational attachment insecurities and their influence on inauthenticity and dishonesty. The first 4 studies showed that authenticity is related to scoring low on the 2 dimensions of dispositional attachment insecurity-anxiety and avoidance-and that these 2 dimensions are associated with different aspects of inauthenticity. The first set of studies also showed that conscious and unconscious security priming increased state authenticity (compared with neutral or insecurity priming). The last 4 studies showed that attachment insecurity is related to dishonesty (lying and cheating) and that security priming reduces the tendency to lie or cheat and does so more effectively than positive mood priming. Implications for understanding the role of authenticity and inauthenticity in various relationship contexts are discussed.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/a0019206