New Research Brings Insights Into Imposter Syndrome

Are there any benefits to having imposter syndrome?

Photo of a woman with a visual representation of imposter syndrome. Image provided by Freepik

In 1978, psychologists and researchers Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes first devised the term “imposter phenomenon” after carefully observing high-achieving women who shared experiences of believing that despite their successes, they didn’t deserve praise. Many women chalked up their feats to exterior circumstances, such as luck. Some felt as though they had completely fooled others into believing they were competent. Clance and Imes had also shared similar self-doubts throughout their lives. They discovered that many of these women felt like they were undeserving of what they had accomplished due to society’s views on women in the workplace at the time.

Today, this phenomenon, more commonly known as imposter (or impostor) syndrome, has been popularized in the media. Psychology Today describes this roughly as people who “believe they are undeserving of their achievements and the high esteem in which they are, in fact, generally held.” Imposter syndrome is commonly correlated with feelings of self-doubt. Many may feel like a fraud despite the contrary. Those with imposter syndrome may overcompensate when completing tasks. Additionally, it can accompany mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. It has also been suggested that around thirty percent of high achievers may experience imposter thoughts. Imposter syndrome could perhaps be prevalent in the medical field, with a study reporting that sixty percent of medical students experience imposter syndrome. Lastly, it has been widely proposed that women are more prone to having bouts of imposter syndrome compared to men, but that men can still feel these self-negative thoughts.

Now, research led by MIT Sloan’s Basima Tewfik and her colleagues, Georgetown University’s Jeremy Yip and UVA’s Sean Martin, has allowed for the debunking of several myths behind the syndrome. Tewfik has done work on imposter syndrome before this, primarily in professional settings. She commonly refers to feelings of imposter syndrome as “workplace imposter thoughts.”

The group’s paper, titled “Workplace Impostor Thoughts, Impostor Feelings, and Impostorism: An Integrative, Multidisciplinary Review of Research on the Impostor Phenomenon,” details their thorough examination of hundreds of papers on imposter syndrome. They discovered that definitions of imposter have broadened widely over time; this has made it much more difficult to investigate the syndrome. 

“It’s time to rethink some of our old ideas about impostorism. We make a lot of assumptions, but maybe these assumptions are holding us back,” Tewfik says. Through their peer review, the group has suggested that:

• Imposter syndrome may be fluid and non-permanent. People may experience imposter thoughts at certain times, and not as often at other times. Tewfik states, “It’s not something you’re stuck with, and I think that it’s really important to move the needle in terms of how we talk about this.” 

• Imposter syndrome may affect men and women more similarly than is thought. Many studies focus on women and marginalized groups dealing with imposter syndrome; however, the group discovered that through many studies, women and men may experience it at comparable rates. 

• Imposter syndrome does not necessarily have only negative consequences; since it pushes many to work harder, these people may achieve more productivity and success in the workplace. Tewfik’s previous work also suggests this. She asserts that those with imposter thoughts “divert to being increasingly other-oriented, which ends up translating into positive interpersonal outcomes.” Additionally, imposter syndrome may not directly enforce some of the negative ideas that have been associated with it.

• Furthermore, the cycles of behaviors that come with imposter syndrome may not necessarily lead to the feelings that one may get with certain outcomes. Tewfik says that it is a presumption that imposter syndrome “makes you feel shameful, and that’s why something comes out badly.” 

Tewfik admits that, “We don’t have a lot of good research to suggest that these arguments hold up when we collect data.” The ideas that have been brought up through the group’s work can be explored more in the future through further studies.