People can find their true selves outside moral pursuits

The dominant view in psychology and philosophy suggests that moral pursuits do and should take precedence over other pursuits (like making or appreciating art). Pursuing a life of moral excellence, it is claimed, allows a person not only to live by good and just principles but also to live an authentic life, one that brings them closest to their true self. The results of three preregistered studies (N = 1,748) oppose this dominant view, and highlight a tension within it: How can morality both constrain us and afford us the freedom to be our truest selves? We find that people resolve this conflict by preferring a balance of life pursuits across several value domains—in both an ideal life and an ideal society—including aesthetic pursuits that uniquely afford freedom from convention. Using a novel experimental paradigm in which people judge two alternate paths for the same person’s life, we find that the pursuit of aesthetic excellence is viewed as providing an advantage over the pursuit of moral excellence: greater access to one’s true and authentic self, free from societal rules and conventions. These findings offer insights into the myriad paths a person can take in life while pursuing autonomy, authenticity, and closeness to their true self.