Familiarity vs. Authenticity: What's the Difference?

"The wondrous adaptability of the human brain establishes familiarity with people, thoughts, and places to conserve mental resources. It limits processing to changes in the environment, that is, exceptions to familiarity. The first few times we walk into a room, we're liable to notice the vase on a table in the corner of the room. The next hundred times, we're unlikely to notice it,"

"Familiarity is that to which we've grown accustomed. Familiarity is disturbed by perceptions (the vase was moved) and sensations (the room is colder than normal). While we can, to some extent, choose what becomes familiar, there is no longer a conscious choice once it is familiar. Familiar feelings are embedded with conditioned interpretations and habituated coping mechanisms. The familiar runs on autopilot, for better and for worse."

The human brain creates familiarity to conserve mental energy by prioritizing exceptions and reducing ongoing processing. Familiarity causes attention to habituate, so repeated exposures elicit less notice unless something changes. Repetition can make falsehoods feel true and familiar feelings carry conditioned interpretations and automatic coping responses. Once familiarity forms, conscious choice diminishes and behavior often proceeds on autopilot. Authenticity requires conscious choice, responsibility, values, and meaning, and cannot be sustained by unexamined feelings alone. Acting on unchecked feelings commonly produces inauthentic behavior such as infidelity, neglect, ego defenses, or aggression; attempts to rationalize such feelings signal inauthenticity.

Read at Psychology Today