Imposter syndrome: signs, how it differs from modesty and what helps

The term imposter syndrome comes from the “impostor phenomenon” described by psychologists Clance and Imes in 1978. It refers to people who, despite clear achievements, believe they are not really that bright and have fooled everyone, put good exam marks down to luck or marking mistakes, and fear being found out one day (Clance & Imes, 1978).

Imposter syndrome is not a diagnosis. It appears neither in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual (DSM) nor in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) (Bravata et al., 2020). The people behind the scale used to measure it also describe it not as a disorder but as a distressing experience shaped by a person’s history and current circumstances (Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale, n.d.). Because “syndrome” sounds like an illness, some researchers suggest keeping the original name, “impostor phenomenon” (Feenstra et al., 2020). mind.io does not offer an imposter syndrome test.

This guide uses research to describe how impostor feelings show up, how they differ from low self-esteem, humility, perfectionism, social anxiety and depression, how common they are and what may help. Research on what helps is still thin, though, so no method can yet be called proven (Gisselbaek et al., 2025).

Three thoughts come up often. “I am actually a fake.” “The praise is exaggerated or just politeness.” “It went well because I was lucky.” A study analysing the measuring scale found these three strands as separate factors (Chrisman et al., 1995). Underneath lies the fear that someday someone will see through you (Clance & Imes, 1978).

When a task comes along, anxiety that “this time I’ll be found out” arrives first. So people over-prepare, or put things off and then rush at the last minute. When the task goes well there is brief relief, but success is put down to effort if they over-prepared, or to luck if they procrastinated, so it never adds up to evidence of ability. That is why, the model goes, the feeling does not fade even after repeated success (Clance & Imes, 1978; Sakulku & Alexander, 2011). In a study of 242 people in leadership roles, those with stronger impostor feelings also tended to work perfectionistically or to procrastinate, and felt more stressed and strained by their work (Rohrmann et al., 2016). The procrastination side is covered in procrastination: what helps.

Lowering expectations in front of others, “I’m not good at this”, often goes with the feeling too. In one experiment, people with stronger impostor feelings gave lower predictions of their own performance than people with weaker ones, but only when others could see their answers (Leary et al., 2000). It may be a shield against the sting of failure. The feeling is not only a trait; it can also rise with the situation (Fujie, 2010), and a review of nursing studies (of nursing students and clinical nurse specialists) linked it to unclear roles, role transitions and little clinical experience (Edwards-Maddox, 2023). It is not strange if it is strongest at a new school, in a first job or just after a promotion.

It overlaps a lot with low self-esteem. In a study of 209 people in Germany, impostor scores moved strongly in the opposite direction to self-esteem (r = −0.71) (Fleischhauer et al., 2021). But whereas low self-esteem is a way of seeing yourself as a whole, impostor feelings concern achievement and ability, with the added fear that others overestimate you and that you will be found out. Another difference is that people fail to take in their accomplishments despite objective success (Bravata et al., 2020). Self-esteem is covered in signs of low self-esteem.

Saying “I was just lucky” can simply be politeness or modesty. Humility is closer to knowing your strengths and limits fairly accurately and accepting praise comfortably. Impostor feelings mean believing, despite the evidence, that you are not really as able as people think and feeling anxious about being found out (Clance & Imes, 1978). The difference lies less in the words than in what you believe inside and whether it distresses you.

It overlaps with perfectionism too, but which kind matters. In a meta-analysis of 25 studies (more than 12,000 people), perfectionism that sets high goals and strives for them was only weakly linked with impostor feelings (r = .15), while perfectionism that worries about mistakes and others’ judgement was strongly linked (r = .61). The overlap seemed to lie mainly in a need to appear perfect to others (Hill & Gotwals, 2025). Most studies in the meta-analysis were one-off surveys, so it cannot tell which comes first (Hill & Gotwals, 2025). Perfectionism has its own guide: perfectionism: what helps.

It can look like social anxiety as well. Both involve fear of others’ judgement, but social anxiety is a fear of embarrassment in front of people that spreads across many everyday situations, while impostor feelings are mainly a fear, at work or in study, that your ability will be exposed as fake. In the study validating the measuring scale, impostor feelings were related to social anxiety, depression and self-esteem but clearly distinguishable from them (Chrisman et al., 1995). If being around people is hard in itself, see social anxiety disorder.

Impostor feelings and depression or anxiety may feed each other. In a study that surveyed 700 German adults three times between 2012 and 2018, depression and anxiety predicted later impostor feelings, and impostor feelings in turn predicted later depression and anxiety (Brauer, 2026). Being observational, it cannot prove cause, but if your mood has been low and your interest reduced for more than 2 weeks, look first at depression symptoms rather than imposter syndrome.

In a systematic review of 62 studies (more than 14,000 people), the share experiencing impostor feelings ranged from 9% to 82%, depending mainly on which tool and which cut-off score were used. The 9% was the share with “intense” feelings in one student sample, and the 82% the share with at least “some” in another (Bravata et al., 2020). When the cut-offs used by different studies were applied to the same answers, the share “having it” ranged from 8% to 65% (Brauer & Proyer, 2026). So researchers see it less as present or absent and more as a tendency that runs from low to high. The often-repeated claim that “70% of people experience it at least once” comes from a 2007 article in a US higher-education newspaper, which a 2011 review repeated (Sakulku & Alexander, 2011); no population survey behind it is easy to find.

Research in Korea is still scarce (Choi & Lee, 2025). In a 1995 study of 654 Korean adults, the same data classified 39% or 24% as “having the impostor phenomenon”, depending on a cut-off just a few points apart. The researchers suggested seeing it as a motivational style rather than an illness (Chae et al., 1995; Bravata et al., 2020).

The idea that it is more common in women is only half right. In a meta-analysis of 115 results and more than 40,000 people, women’s average scores were a little higher than men’s, but the difference was small (d = 0.27), and smaller still in studies from Asia (Price et al., 2024). Of 33 studies comparing the sexes, 16 found higher scores in women and 17 found no difference (Bravata et al., 2020). Clance and Imes themselves wrote that seeing it less in men was only a clinical impression that needed research (Clance & Imes, 1978).

It also shows up in people who face discrimination or are in a minority where they are. In a study of US ethnic-minority college students, among Asian American students impostor feelings acted as a bridge between experiences of discrimination and depression and anxiety (Cokley et al., 2017). In such cases the problem lies not only in the individual but also in the environment. Research so far has mostly looked at people who are often evaluated, such as university and medical students and nurses (Bravata et al., 2020).

Research on what helps is still scarce. The systematic review of studies up to 2018 found none that had tested a treatment (Bravata et al., 2020), and a 2025 umbrella review of 16 reviews published up to 2024 found promise for coaching, online self-study and mindfulness, but few high-quality studies (Gisselbaek et al., 2025). Most of the ideas below are suggestions from the clinicians who first described the phenomenon, or come from small studies.

Try telling a trusted colleague or friend about the feeling. Clance and Imes noticed that once one person shares, others are able to share theirs (Clance & Imes, 1978). After a workshop for health-science students, impostor feelings stayed at the same level, but students said that hearing peers’ stories and learning how common the experience was relieved their anxiety, and that they could manage the feeling better (Chang et al., 2022). In a survey of 459 first-year university students, impostor feelings were stronger the lower self-compassion was (r = −0.55), and overlapped most with feeling isolated, as if “I am the only one struggling” (r = 0.69) (Patzak et al., 2017).

Writing down the praise you receive, and how you dismiss it, is another method Clance and Imes suggested. They also advised cutting back over-preparation in small steps rather than all at once (Clance & Imes, 1978). A habit of noting what you got done at the end of the day is also described in how to build self-esteem.

Self-compassion may help as well. In a US trial that randomised 227 university students, those who did a short 4-week self-compassion programme saw impostor feelings and unhelpful perfectionism fall more than a group that did nothing (Liu et al., 2023). It is still one trial at one university and needs confirming. Practices are covered in how to build self-compassion.

Some researchers criticise seeing imposter syndrome only as a problem inside the individual. They argue that anyone may feel like an impostor when treated as if they do not belong, and that the feeling can ease when people are treated as someone of value and worth (Feenstra et al., 2020). The name makes it easy to blame yourself, but the environment plays a part too.

Some approaches have been tested at work and in training. In a trial that randomised 103 new employees at two German companies, the group that received coaching had lower impostor scores up to 5 weeks later, while a group taught the same content in a training course came out ahead on knowledge (Zanchetta et al., 2020). Online group-coaching trials with women physician trainees also found lower scores (Fainstad et al., 2022; Mann et al., 2023), but the same programme made no difference for medical students (Mann et al., 2025). Some studies also lost many participants along the way, so no method can yet be said to work.

It often goes together with burnout. In a survey of more than 3,000 US physicians, the stronger the impostor feelings, the more common burnout was: the strongest group had an odds ratio of 2.13 for burnout compared with the weakest (Shanafelt et al., 2022). It was a one-off survey, though, so it cannot tell which came first. If work has worn you out, also see burnout symptoms.

Organisations can do something too. Recommendations include building a culture where mistakes are not treated as failures and acknowledging accomplishments publicly, and one study found the link between impostor feelings and work-life conflict was weaker in employees who felt more supported by their organisation (Bravata et al., 2020). In studies of physicians and trainees, social support, having success acknowledged, and reflecting on experiences together went with fewer impostor feelings (Gottlieb et al., 2020).

Impostor feelings on their own do not necessarily call for counselling. But if they come with low mood for more than 2 weeks, anxiety before evaluations bad enough to keep you awake, or exhaustion at the very thought of work, it is time to look first at depression, anxiety or burnout. As no treatment has yet been shown to work specifically for imposter syndrome, researchers advise checking carefully for depression and anxiety and getting treatment that has evidence behind it (Bravata et al., 2020). You can look at these with the depression check-in (PHQ-9), the anxiety check-in (GAD-7) and the burnout self-check. Self-checks are not a diagnosis.

Talk to a student counselling service, an employee assistance programme at work, your doctor or a mental health professional. Secondary-school students can talk it through with a parent or a school counsellor.

If “I’m a fake” turns into “I’m worthless” and you start to feel like disappearing, please do not carry that alone. If you have thoughts of ending your life, reach out to a crisis line right away: call or text 988 in the US and Canada, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find a line at findahelpline.com elsewhere. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services.

Q. Is imposter syndrome an illness? A. No. It is a common pattern of experience that is not in the diagnostic manuals (Bravata et al., 2020). It often comes with depression or anxiety, though, so if it is making life hard, look at those too.

Q. How is it different from being modest? A. The difference is less in saying “I was lucky” than in truly believing it despite the evidence and fearing being found out (Clance & Imes, 1978).

Q. Do women experience it more? A. On average a little more, but the difference is small, and men often experience it too (Price et al., 2024; Bravata et al., 2020).

Q. Is there an imposter syndrome test? A. mind.io does not offer an imposter syndrome test. The scale used in research is copyrighted and cannot be used on a website without permission (Clance, n.d.), and the cut-off scores have not been validated (Brauer & Proyer, 2026). You can look at how you treat yourself when you slip up with the self-compassion test.

Q. What are the “five types” of imposter syndrome? A. The five types, such as the perfectionist and the expert, are a classification popular in self-help books. Studies validating it are hard to find, so treat it only as a way of thinking about yourself.

Q. Feeling like a fake makes me want to disappear. A. Please do not carry this alone. Reach out to a crisis line right away: call or text 988 in the US and Canada, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find a line at findahelpline.com elsewhere. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services.

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