This is Hidden Brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
Dance like no one is watching.
Sing like you are alone in the shower.
Be yourself.
Everyone else is already taken.
Countless aphorisms remind us that as we move through life, we have a choice.
We can pretend and disguise who we are, or we can be true to ourselves.
What does it mean to be ourselves no matter what they say?
As the musician Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting, once instructed us, don't we all contain multitudes?
Is there really only one true self?
And even if there is, how wise is it to always reveal ourselves as social creatures heavily dependent on the people around us?
Does it really make sense to ignore how others see us and march to our own drummers?
The evidence about authenticity seems clearer when the shoe is on the other foot, when we are evaluating other people.
Most of us are extremely suspicious of people who may not be what they seem.
When we discover someone has lied to us, either implicitly or explicitly, we read this as betrayal.
We distrust those who say one thing in public and do something else in private.
This is why politicians learn to look you in the eye as they speak to you, why they master the art of the firm handshake and the steady voice.
This is really me, they are trying to say.
What you see is what you get.