Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is the feeling that your success came from luck, timing or someone's mistake, and that sooner or later you'll be found out. It's not a diagnosis. The psychologists who named it in 1978 called it a phenomenon, an inner experience, and found it didn't belong to any one clinical category.1
Take one "I'm a fraud" thought from this week and look at it step by step. Nothing you type leaves your device.
The moment
Just the facts, as a camera would record them.
If writing this out leaves you feeling worse, it's fine to stop and come back later, or to talk to someone you trust. If you're thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US, or see crisis resources.
It started with 150 women who had every credential
Over five years, the psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes worked with more than 150 high-achieving women: PhDs, respected professionals, top students.1 They had degrees, honors and praise. They still believed they weren't intelligent, and that everyone who thought otherwise had been fooled.1
In 1978 Clance and Imes gave it a name, the "imposter phenomenon".1 They called it a phenomenon, not a syndrome.
Five habits that keep the feeling going
Each one comes from the patterns in the 1978 paper. The quotes under them are examples we wrote.
Crediting luck or a mistake
A good result gets explained by something outside you: an easy test, a kind grader, an error by whoever chose you.1
"They must have mixed up my application with someone else's."
Overpreparing, then crediting the overpreparing
Fear of being found out drives hard work far past what the task needs. It pays off. The relief lasts a day, and the success goes in the file marked effort, where ability never gets a look.1
"I only got through that presentation because I rehearsed it 20 times. Next time I won't have the hours."
Keeping your real opinion to yourself
Saying what the room wants to hear feels safer than saying what you think, and the cost is that you never find out whether your own view would have been respected.1
"I didn't mention my idea in the meeting. If it was any good, someone else would have said it."
Brushing off praise
Compliments get explained away, so they never land.1 CBT has a name for this one: disqualifying the positive.
"My manager only said it went well because she's nice to everyone."
Waiting to be found out
The fear sits in the background, and each new task can look like the one that will finally expose you.1
"Now they'll expect more, and they'll finally see I don't know what I'm doing."
- Worry: This is the time they'll find out.
- Overwork: Prepare far more than the task needs.
- It goes well: The result is good, often better than good.
- Brief relief: A day of feeling fine.
- The credit goes elsewhere: It was the effort, or luck. The worry comes back for the next task.
In the 1978 paper's account, the overwork does produce success.1 So why give up a habit that keeps working?
The stomach drop when someone says "great job"
For some people it shows up in the body before it turns into a thought. Your face might get hot when someone introduces you as the expert.
You can list a friend's strengths in a minute and go blank on your own. You keep a mental file of every mistake and nothing on the other side.
Anywhere from 9% to 82% of people
That range is real. A 2020 systematic review gathered 62 studies with 14,161 people, and the rates swung that widely mostly because each study used a different questionnaire and cutoff.2 Any single headline figure is one of those choices.
Clance and Imes thought it was rarer in men.1 The review found it common in both men and women, in teenagers and in late-career professionals, with especially high rates in ethnic minority groups.2 It turned up alongside depression and anxiety, and it was linked to burnout and lower job satisfaction.2
Nobody has tested a treatment
The same review looked for studies of treatments and found none published.2 Every tip you'll read, including the ones on this page, is untested as a treatment for imposter feelings. The steps below borrow from the original paper and from CBT, and they're offered as practices.
Some researchers think the name points at the wrong place. Feenstra and colleagues argue that "syndrome" locates the problem inside the person, when being the only one like you in a room, or being treated as if you don't belong, can produce these feelings in anyone.3
You may have seen the "five types": the perfectionist, the expert, the natural genius, the soloist and the superwoman. They come from Valerie Young's 2011 self-help book.4 We found no study testing them as separate types.
What to try anyway
- Keep a record of praise, and of how you brushed it off. This was homework in the 1978 paper: write down positive feedback, notice how you stop yourself from taking it in, then try taking it in.1 The wins journal below is built on it.
- Write the thought in its own words. "I'm a fraud" feels like a fact. On paper it's a sentence you can examine, and the thought record walks you through one. "I feel like a fraud, so I must be one" is a textbook case of emotional reasoning.
- Tell one person. In Clance and Imes's therapy groups, when one woman was willing to share the feeling, others could share theirs.1
- Cut the overpreparing in small steps. Prepare one meeting with half your usual hours and see what happens. Go slowly: Clance and Imes warned that dropping the habit too fast can spike anxiety.1
- Look at the room. If you're the only one like you there, find a mentor or peers who share that experience. Feenstra's group argues the setting is part of the problem, so it's part of the answer.3
An evidence-of-wins journal
Imposter feelings go with a lopsided record, with every mistake kept and every win explained away. This journal evens it out with your own evidence. That's a deliberate choice over slogans, which backfired for people with low self-esteem in two experiments, though a later replication found no effect either way (the affirmations page has both studies).
Once a week, write three short answers:
- What went well? One thing, big or small: a finished task, a hard conversation, a question you asked.
- What did you do to make it happen? Name your part in plain words. Luck may be in there too. Write both.
- How did you brush it off? Write the exact sentence you told yourself, such as "anyone could have done it".
After a month, read all of them in one sitting and put the third answers side by side.
If they repeat, you've found the sentence to work on.
What went well this week, what did you do to make it happen, and what did you tell yourself to make it not count?
Answer this with JoyJoyful's Celebrate Wins entry starts with that first question, out loud or in writing. Joy asks about the small wins as well as the big ones, and what you did to make them happen.
If it's turned into something heavier
The feeling deserves more than a journal if it comes with weeks of low mood, constant anxiety, or trouble sleeping or working.
Joyful is an AI journaling companion, not therapy. You can use it to practice between appointments; it can't replace them.
Questions people ask
Is it imposter or impostor syndrome?
Both spellings are common. The 1978 paper's title spells it "imposter", and the 2020 review cited on this page spells it "impostor".1,2
What is the root of imposter syndrome?
Clance and Imes pointed to early family messages and to gender stereotypes about who is "supposed" to succeed.1 Later researchers add the setting: being in the minority, or being treated as an outsider.3 No single cause has been tested.
Is imposter syndrome a mental illness?
No. The women Clance and Imes described didn't fit any one clinical category.1 Depression and anxiety often come along with it, though, and those are worth raising with a doctor.2