Why do people set more self-concordant goals in need satisfying domains? Testing authenticity as a mediator

Previous research has demonstrated that people set and pursue more self-concordant goals in domains where they experience the satisfaction of psychological needs ( Milyavskaya, Nadolny, & Koestner, 2014 ). However, the mechanism for this has not been investigated. The present study proposes that authenticity experienced in a domain mediates the relationship between domain need satisfaction and goal self-concordance. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we investigate two components of authenticity and find that only authentic behaviour, but not authentic awareness, relates to goal self-concordance and acts as a mediator. We also test an alternative model, ruling out the possibility that need satisfaction is influenced by authenticity.