We have all experienced this: the feeling that you don’t deserve what you have achieved and you are hiding in the fear of being discovered as a fraud even though you try hard to get there. Psychologists have a name for it: Imposter Syndrome.
Source: Wiki Commons
What’s Imposter Syndrome?
It applies to people who have difficulty internalizing their accomplishment and denying their success by dismissing it as luck, timing or even deception. Unsurprisingly, while both gender experience the imposter feelings, females, especially among high achieving women, are more vulnerable to imposter syndrome and experience them in a higher intensity. This can be caused by the societal sex-role stereotype of women as less capable than man and that women are less likely to success in the society. As a result, outstanding academic or professional accomplishment won’t affect their imposter feeling and people who suffer from imposter Syndrome will tend to try much harder than peers to keep up with such belief and maintain the imposter feelings over time.
Who’s likely to have it?
Sources: Flickr Commons
Researchers found that the Imposter phenomenon is often associated with certain personality traits and characteristics, such as introversion, anxiety, desire to look smart, and even a non-supportive family background. It is not classified as a psychological disorder and large population is affected by the it. Even Albert Einstein might have suffered from the imposter syndrome.
“[T]he exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.”
—- Albert Einstein
He confided his thoughts to one of his friend and died a month later, at the age of seventy-six.
The effect of impostorism
Two sociologists asked a question why the trend of “downshifting” in academic career ambitions in women is twice as common as in man and they conducted a research on this. Originally, they blamed increase concerns in women about family friendliness as the cause. However, It turned out that imposterism played a significant role in female’s increased likelihood to downshift in academia. As a result, talented individuals who suffer from feelings of fraudulence are more likely to be discouraged to contribute due to insecurity. That is considered as a huge loss to academia world.
Sadly, it also happens in technology field, creative fields and almost all industries.
Treat yourself right
There are no magic pills to treat imposter syndrome but we can definitely try to change the way we see ourself and treat ourself right. Stop saying “because I am lucky” when others recognize your accomplishment. When you catch yourself saying “I am stupid”, try not to be fooled by what you are experiencing because what you said to yourself can be far from the reality.
Be proud!
The talk talks more about how to “treat” Imposter Syndrome.
Credit to: Talks at Google
By: Luxi Xu
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