Have you ever felt like a fraud? Perhaps, on getting a new job or promotion, you’ve been immediately hit by thoughts that you’re not good enough – and, surely, somebody will soon unmask you as a charlatan.
If so, you’re probably suffering from impostor syndrome. And you certainly wouldn’t be the first person to experience it. Some studies show that between 70 and 80 per cent of the general population has experienced impostor syndrome at some point in their life.
Even the cleverest people in history have felt like frauds at times. Shortly before his death, Albert Einstein told a friend that praise of his work made him feel like an involuntary swindler.
Read more:
- Here's the best (and worst) time to drink your morning caffeine
- The oldest person in the world in 2024
- We may finally know how your brain got so big
Considering this, it’s a surprise the impostor experience didn’t catch the attention of psychologists sooner. It was only in 1978 that researchers first noticed it, labelling “impostor phenomenon,” as it was first known, as “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness.” The definition in recent years, however, has become much longer.
In fact, Dr Valerie Young, a thought leader on impostor syndrome and co-founder of the Impostor Syndrome Institute, defines it as – deep breath – “the belief, consciously or unconsciously, that we are not as intelligent, capable, confident and talented as other people seem to think that we are, and this belief exists despite concrete evidence of our past accomplishments or abilities and, as a result, we have a fear of being found out.”
It’s thanks to the work of people like Young that the experience is now so well known. Indeed, a number of famous faces have spoken about their own impostor feelings, from Michelle Obama and Natalie Portman to Kamala Harris and Tom Hanks.
And it’s not only celebrities – there were an estimated 2.9 million internet searches for the term ‘impostor syndrome’ in the US alone during 2023.
For all the recognition it’s getting, there’s still a lot that most people get wrong about impostor syndrome. Firstly, it’s not even a syndrome. “Impostor syndrome isn’t a medically or psychologically diagnosable condition,” Young points out.
Instead, she says, it’s simply an experience or pattern of experiences that people can identify with. These include being unable to take credit for your own successes, striving towards unattainable perfectionism, denying your own competence, and holding a deep fear of failure (known as atychiphobia) or success (achievemephobia) that could lead to others having higher expectations of you.
There may not even be one kind of impostor syndrome, either. Psychologists from Goethe University Frankfurt now argue there are two main types: ‘true impostors’ and ‘strategic impostors’. While the true impostors suffer from the experiences listed above, strategic impostors are effectively impersonating true impostors.
While their outward behaviour is the same, strategic impostors are fully aware of their abilities, but present themselves as less capable in order to manage expectations and appear more approachable. In other words, although their intentions may be good, they fraudulently present themselves as frauds.
Overall, there’s a lot more to impostor syndrome than psychologists first believed. From what actually causes it, to how you can overcome it, recent research has uncovered a mine of truths (and misinformation) about the phenomenon.
Why you have it
Although you might think impostor syndrome is solely caused by a lack of confidence, its roots can be hard to disentangle. The exact causes are hard to pin down because it’s a classic case of nature versus nurture.
Although individual genetics are likely to play a part, some people are more susceptible to it from a societal perspective. “You can’t separate the internal experience of impostor syndrome from the societal aspects that might fuel it,” Young explains.
Your sex may also be a factor, but not as much as previously thought. As it was originally studied in high-achieving female students who were convinced they would fail their exams, impostor syndrome was deemed solely a female issue.
And it’s true that, according to a recent meta-analysis of 100 studies, women are more likely to experience impostor feelings. The difference between men and women is generally in the “small to moderate range,” however.
The cause of any difference hasn’t been proven, but it’s notable that women are more prone to experience impostor syndrome in the workplace.
“The reasons are still up for debate,” says Dr Jessamy Hibberd, a clinical psychologist and author of the book The Imposter Cure. She argues those reasons are largely systemic, though, and rooted in the fact that women entered the professional workplace later than men.
“We all still have internalised biases about what women’s role in the workplace looks like and that can impact our own feelings,” she says. “If you don’t see others that look like you in the workplace, you don’t have a sense of belonging and this can breed feelings of being an impostor.”
In a similar way, race can play a role. As Dr Kevin Cokley, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, says: “Environmental factors influencing minority groups, such as discrimination, where certain groups are feeling extra pressures, can amplify impostor syndrome feelings they’re already experiencing.”
The industry a person works in, as you might have guessed, may make a big difference, too. If you work in a high-pressure office or in ‘information-dense fields’ where you’re required to have flawless knowledge on a subject that could be rapidly changing, impostor syndrome is more likely, according to Young.
Unsurprisingly, impostor syndrome is therefore common among those who work in medicine, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and academia – especially among students. One study of University of Vienna students found almost 8 out of 10 participants experienced frequent or moderate impostor feelings, while another 12.6 per cent suffered from such feelings intensely.
Read more:
- How to boost your metabolism: 5 simple ways to speed up fat loss
- You're (probably) cleaning your reusable water bottle wrong
- Here's how your cholesterol level shapes your dementia risk
Another study from the University of Bath found the excessive desire to succeed (aka perfectionism) has significantly increased in young people since the 1980s, despite the increased proportion of people earning a University degree.
Your family could also be to blame. As the original research on impostor syndrome found, if you grew up in a family environment where you weren’t complimented on your intelligence, but instead praised for other things like your looks or social skills, you might go on to have impostor feelings related to your intelligence.
On the flip side, if you constantly received messages about your smartness, you might end up finding it hard to live up to those expectations.
If all these insights don’t seem to explain your feelings of impostor syndrome, perhaps the evolutionary perspective will. Psychologists at the University of Athens have theorised that underestimating your skills could be a stress-response safety mechanism designed to push you to put more effort into tasks and prompt you to consider any possible shortcomings.
However, while impostor syndrome may have been critical in the struggle for survival thousands of years ago, it’s much less helpful during your average 9 to 5 office job now.
How to beat it
Facts not feelings
It’s time to admit it: your impostor syndrome doesn’t make complete sense. The experience of feeling like an impostor is ultimately just a perception of how you see certain situations, and is often based on contradicting arguments.
“I often see how people have two rules in place in their minds,” says Hibberd. “If they do well, they put it down to external factors and if anything goes wrong, it is a personal failure.”
Getting out of this frame of mind means focusing on facts as opposed to feelings. How? Young, Hibberd and Cokley all agree that finding a way to document factual successes is key. In fact, this is the number one strategy for combating impostor syndrome, according to Cokley.
“People experiencing impostor feelings don’t attend to times when they do well – it’s important to take the time to acknowledge successes. I encourage people to write them down on a regular basis and revisit the list periodically and see how you have done well,” he says.
Read more:
- Here’s why you shouldn’t spit out any mucus when you’re ill
- Breakthrough breath test could detect lung cancer early
- Your microbiome holds the key to stress resilience, study shows
Granted, starting an achievement journal may sound vomit-inducing for many. But, as Cokley argues, quickly scrawling down three achievements at the end of your day – be it in an email draft or in the notes app on your phone – goes a long way towards changing your mindset.
Break the secret
You’re not alone. That’s the simple – and yes, rather cheesy – message that can help change feelings that you’re not good enough. After all, as Young argues, if it’s normal for most people to suffer from impostor experiences then it’s likely the environment is the problem, not you.
She gives an example of meeting medical students who worked in a competitive environment. Simply getting them to understand and acknowledge that they worked in a place that could easily foster feelings of being an impostor became a key coping mechanism. “Knowing that, allowed them to do less personalising and more contextualising,” Young says.
In a similar vein, impostor feelings are often wrapped up in secrecy and shame. If we’re already feeling like we aren’t good enough, we’re not going to go around shouting about it to others, especially those who appear to be very successful. However, this makes us feel more alone, worsening those impostor feelings.
“Oftentimes people suffer in silence, especially in competitive environments,” Cokley says. “We don’t want to tell people about our weaknesses as we don’t want to give people an advantage over us. But chances are, if you’re suffering, so are your colleagues. Talking to someone you work with is tremendously helpful and it normalises the feelings you’re experiencing.”
Strive for failure
One of the best ways of overcoming impostor syndrome is to… well, not try your best. In fact, deliberately messing up could be of great help.
According to Hibberd, impostor syndrome will likely cause you to either overwork or procrastinate. This is because those suffering with impostor syndrome tend to have perfectionist tendencies and set very high standards for themselves: “We move the goalposts all the time, we want one thing and as soon as we get there we expect something else,” she says.
When you have impostor feelings you struggle to see your successes objectively – or acknowledge them at all. This can lead to overworking (in order to try and ensure what you’re doing is as close to perfect as possible) or procrastinating (due to a fear that anything you do won’t be good enough).
Read more:
- The Y chromosome is disappearing. Is this the end of men?
- This gene-editing discovery could help reverse ageing
- Why you should never take health advice from people aged over 100
To counteract this, Hibberd suggests experimenting with messing up a little and seeing if it quietens impostor feelings. “Instead of completing a project perfectly or not doing it at all, submit something less than perfect and see if anyone even notices,” she says.
This doesn’t mean outright self-sabotage – no need to start the next email to your boss with a poop emoji – but just not dedicating all your efforts to every task.
Stop thinking like an imposter
Ever feel like you’re not the most articulate person all the time? That you’re not the best timekeeper, or the most creative person? Well, maybe you’re not. But, according to Young, that’s completely okay.
This is because one of the big misconceptions around impostor syndrome is that there are two types of people: those who feel like impostors, and those with boundless confidence and abilities who never feel like a fraud.
This thinking assumes there’s no middle ground at all. Young believes differently, however. “I believe there’s a third and healthier choice and that’s being a humble realist,” she says.
As Young advises, to be a non-impostor, you don’t need to go into every situation thinking it’ll go perfectly – humble realists know they can’t be brilliant at everything and they’re fine with that. In contrast to impostors, they know their strengths and weaknesses and accept both. They know excelling at everything is an impossible ask.
Young argues it’s only by reframing impostor syndrome in this way that a person can truly stop feeling like an impostor. Also, she shares the importance of getting into a ‘fake it until you make it’ mindset, as that’s what non-impostors are doing. “You don’t have to feel confident to act confident. But over time you’ll believe the new thoughts,” she says.
Adapting this approach won’t change you into a new person overnight, but it can help to vastly decrease the time you spend feeling like an impostor. As Young says: “You can have an impostor moment, not an impostor life.”
About our experts
Dr Valerie Young is considered a longtime thought leader on imposter syndrome and the world's foremost expert on the subject. Since earning a doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1982, she's spent over 30 years honing her approach to tackling imposter syndrome.
Dr Jessamy Hibberd is a clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience in clinical practice. As well as a media psychologist, she's also a bestselling author who has written nine books in total, including The Imposter Cure.
Dr Kevin Cokley, a Full professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, is an expert on African American Psychology. Specifically, his research has focused on understanding the psychological and environmental factors that affect the achievement of African American students and to challenge the negative notions around them.