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The Science of the Imposter Phenomenon: Named in 1978, Still Misread Today

The 'imposter phenomenon' was named in 1978 by two psychologists studying high-achieving women who, despite degrees, promotions and awards, remained convinced they had fooled everyone. Almost fifty years later, the research says three things clearly: imposter feelings are common in accomplished people of every gender, measured prevalence swings from 9% to 82% depending on which questionnaire you use, and success itself doesn't cure it — because the script discounts each new win as luck or charm. The newest work adds a twist: the feeling often tracks the environment, not just the person running it.

9–82%the range of imposter-phenomenon prevalence estimates across studies — the number depends heavily on which screening instrument and cutoff a study uses 62 studiescovering 14,161 participants were pooled in the first systematic review — which found imposter feelings common in men and women alike and frequently co-occurring with depression and anxiety 0published studies evaluating a treatment for imposter syndrome were found by the 2020 systematic review — despite four decades of research on the construct itself 20 itemsmake up the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (1985), the field's most widely used measure — its subscales are named for the script itself: Fake, Discount, and Luck

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