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Commonly defined as knowing and living in accordance with one\u2019s perceived \u201ctrue self,\u201d we propose that authenticity may also be inferred from ambient feelings of fluency, or the subjective feeling of ease that corresponds to one\u2019s immediate experience, mental processing, or physical action. We report four studies (\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N<\/jats:italic>\n                    = 1,465) supporting this idea. Study 1 shows that fluency during a recent activity predicts subjective authenticity beyond other relevant variables. Study 2 demonstrates that participants\u2019 recalled fluent experiences also felt authentic. In Study 3, generating self-defining attributes under cognitive load reduced fluency and, subsequently, subjective authenticity. Finally, preregistered Study 4 manipulated fluency during a non-self-relevant task. Participants in the fluent condition reported greater subjective authenticity than those in the disfluent condition. We discuss how a phenomenological approach to subjective authenticity can integrate and complement recent theorizing about the nature of authenticity.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/01461672261451297","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T10:40:17Z","timestamp":1780656017000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Fluency as a Cue to Authenticity"],"prefix":"10.1177","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0936-5279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lydia","family":"Needy","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew","family":"Baldwin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hive Science, Minnesota, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rebecca J.","family":"Schlegel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wilhelm","family":"Hofmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum, Germany"},{"name":"German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Partner Site Bochum-Marburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aday A. 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