Exploring the Validity of the Impostor Phenomenon

Abstract

This study empirically tested prior theoretical speculations and clinical observations concerning the impostor phenomenon. The cognitive and affective experiences of “impostors” and nonimpostors were assessed prior to and following feedback on an important evaluative event. As hypothesized, impostors expected to perform less well and were more anxious than were nonimpostors prior to a midterm exam but did not differ in exam performance. Furthermore, impostors felt affectively worse and suffered a greater loss in state self-esteem than did nonimpostors after subjective failure on the exam, but they did not differ from nonimpostors after subjective success. Analyses performed holding initial trait self-esteem scores constant further revealed that initial self-esteem could account for many of the differences between impostors and nonimpostors. However, the crucial differences between these two groups in postfailure affect and state self-esteem could not be accounted for by the fact that impostors were initially lower than nonimpostors in trait self-esteem. Few of the differences between impostors and nonimpostors could be explained by initial differences in defensive pessimism (Norem & Cantor, 1986b).