The Impostor Phenomenon
The impostor phenomenon is defined as the mistaken feeling that one’s successes are unearned and that at any moment the charade could end. The emphasis is on “mistaken” – these people are not really frauds. Or are they? Researchers asked this question recently. They studied how often self-defined impostors engaged in plagiarism and other types of dishonest behavior. Their results supported the original idea that the fraudulence is all in their head; the supposed impostors reported on a survey that they cheated less often than control subjects who did not have impostor feelings.
