Imposter Syndrome at Work: When Success Doesn't Convince You

In 1978, clinical psychologist Pauline Clance and her colleague Suzanne Imes published in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice a paper based on interviews with more than 150 high-achieving women — scientists, physicians, researchers at US universities. None of them were deceiving their employers. Almost all were convinced it was a matter of time before everyone found out they didn't belong. Clance called it the "impostor phenomenon" — and 45 years later, the research took a turn nobody expected.

You just gave a strong presentation. Your manager was pleased, your colleagues approved. And underneath — a quiet certainty that it was a fluke, and the next time will make that clear. That isn't modesty, and it isn't low self-esteem. This feeling has a precise mechanism. And something unexpected inside it.

Where the term comes from

In 1978, clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes published in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice what became one of the most-cited papers in occupational psychology. They had conducted clinical interviews with more than 150 high-achieving women — professors, researchers, physicians at leading US universities. None of them were actually deceiving anyone. But nearly all shared a persistent inner experience of "intellectual phoniness" — a conviction that they hadn't earned their position, that they were running on borrowed time before someone found out.

Clance deliberately called it a "phenomenon," not a "syndrome" — not a disorder, a pattern of experience. That distinction still matters: the impostor phenomenon does not appear in ICD-11 or DSM-5.

How the loop works

The mechanism is two-directional misattribution. When things go well, success gets credited to external causes: lucky timing, easy questions, a helpful colleague. When something goes wrong, the explanation flips internal: I'm not good enough. No success ever counts as evidence of competence, while every failure confirms its absence. The loop is self-sealing — no amount of achievement reopens it.

Who it affects — and when

Clance and Imes originally documented the pattern in high-achieving women. Later research extended it well beyond gender. A systematic review by Dena Bravata and colleagues, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2020, covered dozens of studies and estimated that up to 82% of people experience it at least once. Peak moments tend to be transitions: first real job, first promotion, first major project you're responsible for alone. At those moments the usual evidence of competence temporarily disappears — and the loop gets louder.

Resident physicians who more frequently experienced impostor thoughts received higher patient ratings on attention and interpersonal contact — compared to those who didn't doubt themselves.

The unexpected finding — what MIT Sloan found in 2022

This is the part nobody expected. Basima Tewfik at MIT Sloan School of Management ran four studies with 3,603 participants total and published the results in the Academy of Management Journal in 2022. In one study — more than 150 employees at an investment advisory firm — those who more frequently experienced impostor thoughts received higher supervisor ratings for interpersonal effectiveness. In another study, involving more than 70 resident physicians, those with more frequent impostor thoughts physically oriented toward patients during consultations: more eye contact, more listening. Patients rated them higher. The paper became one of the journal's most-read articles of the year.

The explanation: self-doubt makes people more attuned to others. They work harder to compensate for the deficit they believe they have. This does not mean imposter syndrome is something to cultivate. It means the feeling itself is not a direct obstacle to performance. What becomes an obstacle is the interpretation — treating it as evidence of incompetence rather than a familiar pattern during transitions.

What to do about it

Waiting for experience to fix it is not a strategy. Experience does not reset the attribution loop: the pattern runs regardless of years in the role or the number of wins on record.

Sources

1. Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247.
2. Tewfik, B. A. (2022). The Impostor Phenomenon Revisited: Examining the Relationship Between Workplace Impostor Thoughts and Interpersonal Effectiveness at Work. Academy of Management Journal, 65(3), 988–1018. journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amj.2020.1627
3. Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., et al. (2020). Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: A Systematic Review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35, 1252–1275. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31848865

This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute professional advice. If anxiety is chronic and affecting your work or personal life, please consult a qualified mental health professional.