Imposter syndrome: waiting to be found out

A promotion, a good review, a new job after months of searching – and instead of joy, a quiet dread. It seems that they must have made a mistake, that it was luck, a good day, the right people. Somewhere in the background is the feeling that sooner or later someone will look more closely and realise this person does not really know what they are doing. Praise only makes it worse: the higher the expectations, the harder the fall when the truth comes out.

This experience is known as imposter syndrome. It was first described in 1978 by two American psychologists, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who had met more than 150 highly successful women convinced they did not deserve their place. Clance and Imes called it the “imposter phenomenon” rather than a syndrome: it is not a diagnosis.

How it shows up

Imposter syndrome is not modesty or fishing for compliments: from the outside the person may seem composed and successful, but they sincerely believe their success is not real. Clance later described several features by which it can be recognised.

Success does not count: a good mark, a promotion or praise gets explained by anything but ability. A compliment feels awkward, and there is an urge to play it down straight away: “it was nothing”.

Having to be the best. Many were top of the class at school. In a stronger group, surrounded by equally able people, they conclude: if I’m not the best, I must not be clever at all.

Everything has to be flawless. The standards are almost impossible: no mistakes, in every area of life at once. Any imperfection feels like failure.

A mistake means being found out. Even a small slip brings shame and feels like evidence: this is it, now everyone will see. To avoid mistakes, work gets checked again and again, and a simple email takes half an hour to rewrite.

Keeping one’s real opinion hidden. Such people often do not say what they really think: they guess what a manager wants to hear, agree, or stay silent, and never find out that their ideas might have been valued too.

Success is frightening: each achievement raises expectations, and with them the risk of being found out. So the person does not ask for a promotion and avoids new responsibility, and after a success feels not joy but relief: got away with it.

Why success does not help

The most puzzling thing is that achievements do not change it: “repeated successes alone”, Clance and Imes wrote, are not enough to break the cycle.

A new task brings anxiety. The person either prepares far more than needed or puts the work off and finishes it at the last moment. The task goes well and relief comes, but briefly: the success seems due to hard work or luck and does not count as proof of their own ability. With the next task, everything starts again.

Where it comes from

There is no single cause: imposter syndrome grows out of childhood experience, personality and circumstances.

Family: Clance and Imes described two family patterns. In the first, a brother or sister is “the clever one”, while the girl is cast as “the sensitive” or “the charming” one, and later puts her own success down to charm. In the second, being clever means everything comes easily, so having to work hard feels like proof of not being able enough. One client remembered hiding her studying from her mother, who used to say that smart people do not have to study.

Later research linked imposter feelings with too little parental warmth and too much protection and control, for example, among British students in a University of Westminster study. But such a childhood does not necessarily lead to it.

Personality: the strongest link is with perfectionism, not with striving to do things well, but with worry about mistakes and the need to appear perfect to others. This was shown by a 2025 review of 25 studies by researchers in the UK and Canada. They are also more common in people who are prone to anxiety, have low self-esteem and a strong fear of failure.

Circumstances. Imposter feelings often flare up at times of change: in a new job, after a promotion, at the start of studies. A competitive atmosphere adds to them too: in a US study, students felt more like imposters in classes they saw as competitive.

Who is prone to it

It is most common in people with high standards for themselves: top students and those used to being the best. It is also stronger in people who find themselves in a minority or the first of their kind in their setting: the first in the family to go to university, people from ethnic minorities.

A new country, a new language

For people who have moved to another country, imposter feelings can grow stronger. It is easy to mistake the effort of working in a foreign language for incompetence, even when the knowledge and skills are entirely intact. And a sense of being an outsider in such a situation is not always an illusion: sometimes the surroundings really do treat a newcomer differently.

What it leads to

It might seem that such a feeling simply spurs a person on. But constant tension and extra work are exhausting, there is no joy in the result, and imposter syndrome often comes with anxiety, low mood and burnout.

Careers suffer too: in studies at the University of Salzburg in Austria, people with imposter feelings did less career planning and were less motivated to lead. Sometimes a person unknowingly gets in their own way, for example, putting off preparation so that a failure can be blamed on lack of time rather than lack of ability.

There is also a less visible loss. Out of fear of being found out, people turn down things they are perfectly capable of and stay in the same role for years. This is how missed opportunities pile up that nobody but them knows about.

What helps

Saying it out loud: Clance and Imes noticed in their groups that as soon as one woman shared her “secret”, others followed, relieved to find they were not alone.

Separating the feeling from the facts: the thought “any moment now they’ll realise I can’t do this” sounds convincing, but it is a feeling, not a conclusion. In that moment it helps to ask what it actually rests on: real feedback and results, or only anxiety.

Noticing one’s own cycle: it helps to see what a person usually does (endless preparation or putting things off) and to change it gradually, noticing that the result does not suffer.

Letting praise in: it is worth noticing exactly how one brushes off compliments (“they’re just being kind”, “anyone could have done it”) and trying to accept them without explaining them away.

Allowing oneself not to know: questions and requests for help are an ordinary part of any job, not a sign of incompetence. The more easily a person lets themselves ask, the less energy goes into hiding what they don’t know.

When it is more than self-doubt

If the fear of being found out is with a person almost all the time, gets in the way of life and work, or comes with constant anxiety and exhaustion, it is worth getting help. Psychotherapy can help a person understand where such a strict inner judge comes from, and learn to see their own achievements as their own.