Are you just faking it?
Why successful people fear they’re frauds and what to do about it.
In the movie Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio plays con man Frank Abagnale, who impersonates a pilot, a prosecutor, and a doctor before he turns 18. Frank is the quintessential imposter, who, despite his lack of training, convinces people with his confidence and charm that he is as competent as his forged diplomas suggest.
In contrast to Frank, many highly trained people who have actually passed licensing exams fear they have deceived people into believing they are more capable than they are. “Imposter phenomenon” refers to the concern that others will find out you are not smart, skilled, or talented enough to deserve your title or accomplishments, despite objective evidence to the contrary.
When I heard about imposter phenomenon as a PhD student, I immediately identified with the feeling. In graduate school, I was surrounded by people I admired, who were smart, accomplished, and hard working, and I wondered if I really belonged among them or had simply charmed my way into the program.
If, like me, you have ever attributed your successes to good luck or the happenstance of a connection, you may have doubted you belong among your accomplished peers or you are deserving of an award or recognition. Another reason you may mistakenly believe you’re an imposter is that you attribute your own success to hard work and others’ successes to their innate talents.
Worrying we’re imposters compared to those around us can affect our motivation and behavior. On one hand, imposter feelings can drive us to work harder to prove ourselves. On the other hand, our concern about what others think of us can exacerbate perfectionism and performance avoidance. Professionally, we might stay in positions where tasks are easy and can be performed to perfection, rather than going for a promotion or a challenge. Or we might avoid speaking up or asking questions so we don’t reveal our ignorance. Imposter feelings can also perpetuate a cycle of fear-driven hard work that exhausts us and leads to burnout.
Healthcare professionals, who carry the weight of their titles as life saving heroes, are particularly prone to fearing they are frauds. Up to 47% of medical students report experiencing imposter phenomenon, while 1 in 4 physicians report experiencing it.
While anyone can experience a fear that they don’t really belong among their successful peers, the sources and consequences of imposter phenomenon are likely different for different demographic groups.
Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes conducted the original imposter phenomenon research in the 70’s with highly successful women in medical, law, and academic fields. They found these women experienced conflicting messages from their family and the broader world about their intelligence, which made them wonder who to really believe. Clance and Imes noted contextual factors, such as seeing few examples of people like them in their fields and receiving discouraging messages about their intellectual capabilities, contributed to these women’s experience of imposter phenomenon, too.
However, critics contend that the imposter phenomenon construct pathologizes individuals for experiencing self-doubt in the face of discrimination. Instead of focusing on only individual-level techniques for countering the feeling (e.g. reframing thoughts), we should enact policies that make our academic and work environments more inclusive and supportive. Critics also point out that there is a difference between being fully supported by your environment, and doubting your competence anyway, and doubting your competence because of the messages you receive from an unsupportive environment.
Dr. Kevin Cokley and colleagues advocate for a more precise definition of the construct that recognizes the contribution of systemic biases for people of color. They define racialized imposter phenomenon as “an internal experience of intellectual and professional self-doubt that occurs among racially minoritized people because of racist environmental experiences.”
So now that we know more about why some of us are more prone to experiencing imposter phenomenon, what can we do about it? The solution requires individual, interpersonal, and organizational strategies.
Individual/interpersonal level:
Challenge Imposter Phenomenon thoughts:
Ask for specific feedback from others you trust about your abilities.
Talk about your fears of being an imposter with others who can relate.
Keep a list of accomplishments (and celebrate them!).
Positively reframe thoughts that drive imposter phenomenon:
“Working hard is part of competence.”
“Persistent luck is not luck.”
“Support from others allows for optimal performance.”
“Knowing what you do not know is a sign of intelligence.”
Practice self-compassion:
When you notice fears of being a fraud, consider what you might say to a friend who felt the same way. Offer those same words to yourself.
Recognize the many contributions to your imposter feelings (childhood, environmental, personal predispositions) and notice that others feel similarly.
Share failures and rejections with others to normalize them.
Seek out support from supervisors and mentors, especially those with similar life experiences.
Organizational level:
Enact equitable hiring practices and actively work to increase representation of people from diverse backgrounds.
Continuously work on DEI initiatives to create a supportive work environment for all people.
Cultivate an environment that promotes psychological safety where people feel safe sharing mistakes and asking questions.
In her article for the New Yorker on the topic, Leslie Jamison reflects that underlying imposter phenomenon is the sense that one’s internal experience of the self doesn’t match the self that is projected onto the outside world.
The strategies listed above for countering imposter phenomenon involve creating environments of vulnerability and authenticity in our workplaces, so that the complexity of who we are as people, beyond our occupational roles, can exist in our professional spaces.
At the Center for Resiliency, we create opportunities for people to share their stories of mistakes, losses, and accomplishments at storytelling events and in large and small group discussions. Our tagline is “healing people, staying human” - an explicit counter to the sentiment that healthcare professionals should be more than human or superheroes. In this way, our goal is to promote the kind of psychological safety that allows people to focus on the process of their work rather than the presentation of themselves.
You can learn more and get involved with our work at www.Center4Resiliency.com