New Research Says Your “Impostor Syndrome” Might Actually Mean You’re Better Than You Think

Most professionals secretly fear they’re not as competent as others think they are – but what if that fear is actually proof you’re performing better than you realise?

A comprehensive study published in an academic journal, the Academy of Management Annals, is challenging decades of conventional wisdom about so-called “impostor syndrome”.

The study, co-authored by Sean Martin of the University of Virginia, Basima Tewfik of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jeremy Yip of Georgetown University, sets out to dismantle the four biggest myths driving the global self-help industry around this topic. “When we dug into the literature it became incredibly clear, incredibly quickly, that the definition of the term ‘impostor syndrome’ was all over the place,” Martin is quoted as saying.

The first myth the authors reject is the idea that impostor feelings are permanent. Martin argues that these episodes are fleeting: “They are thoughts, and you can experience them and then they can go away.” That places the emphasis not on pathology but on context, signalling moments of growth rather than lasting psychological flaws.

The second myth concerns identity. Contrary to decades of popular belief, the study finds no compelling evidence that women or marginalised groups experience impostor thoughts more than anyone else. “In my research, I’ve never found there to be a significant gender difference,” Tewfik notes. That shifts the focus away from identity-based explanations and toward the dynamics of specific workplaces and roles.

The third myth is the assumption that impostor thoughts always harm performance. In fact, the review finds that employees experiencing them are often rated by colleagues as more interpersonally effective. “If you perceive that people expect you to know things that you don’t know...the other people must think you’re pretty great,” Martin observes. In that framing, self-doubt doesn’t undermine performance – it heightens empathy, curiosity, and collaboration.

The fourth myth is the claim that we understand how impostor thoughts supposedly spiral into negative outcomes. The authors argue that the evidence is thin and that the classic chain of “self-doubt → shame → failure” is largely speculative. Instead, they suggest viewing impostor thoughts as a diagnostic signal of workplace culture. As Martin puts it, “If employees say they are experiencing impostor thoughts and are associating the feeling with negativity, that suggests they don’t feel safe.”