In This Article
Do you feel like an imposter? Regardless, I'm here to help. I break down the 8 types of imposter syndrome, what the research really says, and what actually helps.
“I feel like an imposter.”
“I don’t deserve my success.”
“I’m not who they think I am.”
Have you ever said these things to yourself? If so, you might be experiencing imposter syndrome, and you’re in very good company. You’ll often see the claim that “70% of people” feel this way. Nobody has ever traced that number to a solid source (more on that below), but imposter feelings really are widespread.
I’m going to talk about imposter syndrome so you can recognize the signs and take the steps you need to heal. I also got to interview Dr. Kevin Cokley, a psychology professor who researches the imposter phenomenon and the author of The Myth of Black Anti-Intellectualism. Watch our conversation on imposter syndrome below:
Quick summary: Imposter syndrome is the experience of feeling undeserving of your achievements and fearing you’ll be exposed as a fraud. It’s a normal, common experience. People tend to fall into recognizable patterns (perfectionists, natural geniuses, experts, and more), and practical methods like reframing your self-talk, embracing vulnerability, and adopting a growth mindset help quiet the inner imposter.
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome (the original academic term is the imposter phenomenon) is the experience of feeling you don’t deserve your accomplishments. You might feel like you don’t belong, that your success is undeserved, or that you’re “out of place,” often paired with a nagging worry that others will expose you as a fraud.
The hallmark is an inability to internalize success. An actor can win every award going and still feel like a fraud, chalking the wins up to luck, timing, or having “fooled everyone.” Where most people take praise as accurate feedback, someone with imposter syndrome treats it as an overestimation they’ll eventually be caught out on.
One important framing note: imposter syndrome is not a clinical diagnosis. You won’t find it in the DSM-5 or ICD-11. It’s a widely recognized descriptive experience, a pattern of thoughts and feelings rather than a disorder you “have.” That matters, because it means the goal isn’t a cure so much as learning to recognize and quiet the pattern.
Do You Have Imposter Syndrome? Take This Quick Quiz
Answer yes or no to each:
- Do you ever feel you don’t deserve your achievements?
- Do you worry people will discover you’re secretly unworthy?
- After a success, do you dismiss it as luck or timing?
- Do you think you’ve tricked others into believing you’re more capable than you are?
- Do you apologize for yourself even when you’ve done nothing wrong?
- Do you think others overvalue your success?
If you answered yes to more than two, you may be experiencing imposter syndrome. This is a quick gut-check. If it’s weighing on you, a licensed therapist can give you a proper assessment.
The 8 Types of Imposters
People with imposter syndrome aren’t all the same. Imposter syndrome expert Dr. Valerie Young identified five competence “types,” and we’ve added a few more patterns we see often. One honest caveat before you read on: These types have never been validated as an instrument. Young developed them from workshop exercises, and most people recognize themselves in more than one. Treat them as a way to spot your own patterns.
The Perfectionist
The Perfectionist fixates on how something is done. They want 110% every time, and imposter feelings kick in the moment those impossible standards aren’t met.
If you’re a perfectionist, you might:
- hold yourself to an impossibly high standard,
- get accused of micromanaging,
- beat yourself up over one small flaw in an otherwise great presentation,
- treat anything less than perfect as failure.
The standard is unreachable by design, so there is always “evidence” of falling short. A 90-minute talk that goes beautifully gets overshadowed by the one slide you fumbled.
Imposter Fix: Try the GEQ method, short for “Good Enough Quality.” Done well now beats perfect later. A few ways to practice:
- Imperfect affirmation: keep a phrase handy like “It’s OK to be 75% done, not 100%.” Repeat it daily, or pick from our list of positive affirmations.
- Incomplete drawing: set a 2-minute timer and draw something; when the timer ends, practice accepting the unfinished result.
- Realistic goals: review your goals. Are they realistic or secretly overachieving? Our goal-setting guide can help.
The Natural Genius
Do you feel you should be smart, fast, and excellent at everything immediately? You might be a Natural Genius. Ironically, it’s often hard workers and high achievers who feel like frauds here. They look at experts and wonder “why am I not there yet?”, forgetting that there’s a learning stage between beginner and pro.
Natural Geniuses tend to:
- believe people are simply born talented,
- get frustrated easily and hop between hobbies,
- see everyone else succeeding while they alone “fail.”
The Natural Genius often avoids things they can’t do well immediately, because struggle itself feels like proof they’re a fraud. So they quit the instrument after two frustrating weeks, or abandon the side project the moment it gets hard.
Imposter Fix: Cultivate a growth mindset, the belief that you build ability through effort instead of being stuck with what you were born with. Treat struggle as the normal middle of the learning curve, and a setback becomes information about what to practice next.
The Over-Planner
The Over-Planner meticulously plans every detail to avoid being “exposed,” believing exhaustive control is the only way to prevent failure. It can tip into choice paralysis, where the fear of a misstep leads to delay or inaction.
Characteristics:
- finds comfort in endless lists, spreadsheets, and detailed plans,
- feels anxious deviating from a plan or improvising,
- misses deadlines or opportunities due to over-preparation.
Imposter Fix: Embrace flexibility. Set strict limits on planning time and adopt a “good enough” approach for minor tasks.
Example: Emily, a project manager, capped herself at two hours of planning for tasks that used to eat a full day. It felt risky, but the project beat its deadline, her team appreciated the added trust, and her imposter symptoms eased once she saw her value wasn’t only in planning.
The Expert
Experts always want more knowledge, more credentials, and more experience, and never feel they have enough. Fittingly, the original 1978 research on the imposter phenomenon studied accomplished women who felt they were constantly underachieving and fooling everyone.
If you’re an Expert imposter, like me, you might:
- over-prepare with books, courses, and training before any big project,
- avoid applying for jobs unless you meet every qualification,
- feel “not enough” even after years of experience.
Imposter Fix: Recognize that knowledge has no finish line. Instead of stockpiling skills for their own sake, accumulate them just in time. Focus on the one skill your next step actually requires, like leadership training ahead of a management move. And notice that you almost certainly already know enough to start.
The Soloist (Rugged Individualist)
The Soloist believes they should do everything themselves, and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Shouldn’t they already know this?
As a Soloist, you may:
- feel you need more prep time,
- prefer solo projects to group work,
- refuse to ask for help even when you need it.
Imposter Fix: Often the block is simply that you haven’t found the right people. Ask who the five people you spend the most time with are. If they build you up, you’ll naturally want to learn from them. I recommend joining a mastermind or other support group to find people you’d actually want to seek advice from.
The Chameleon
The Chameleon constantly adjusts their behavior, opinions, and work style to match what they think others expect, fearing their true self would be “found out.” This adaptability (common in ambiverts) is a strength in small doses, but it can erode your sense of identity.
Characteristics:
- frequently shifts viewpoints or interests based on others’ opinions,
- struggles to maintain a consistent style or area of expertise,
- attributes praise to “mimicking” someone else rather than their own skill.
Imposter Fix: Reconnect with your own voice. Reflecting on your core values and genuine strengths helps ground your sense of self, so you can adapt to a room without disappearing into it. Start small. Voice one real opinion in a low-stakes setting and notice that the sky doesn’t fall.
The Superwoman/Superman
The Superperson takes on more and more, struggles to say no, and often works harder than everyone around them, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.
Signs include:
- juggling many roles at once (work, chores, school, side hustle),
- regularly working past everyone else’s hours,
- neglecting friends, family, or hobbies to work more.
Underneath the heroics is usually a quiet bargain: if I just do enough, no one will notice I don’t belong here. The bar resets every morning, so there is always one more late night to pull.
Imposter Fix: If you’re running in super mode, you’re probably also a people-pleaser, taking on extra to be needed as much as to achieve. Our guide on how to stop people-pleasing is a good next read.
The Solo Achiever
Close cousin to the Soloist, the Solo Achiever believes their wins only count if they did it entirely alone. Any help, however small, makes the achievement feel unearned, which feeds the imposter cycle.
You might recognize:
- struggling to accept help or collaboration,
- working in isolation to avoid “revealing” gaps,
- discounting a successful project because someone else contributed.
Imposter Fix: Treat collaboration as something that makes the work better. Practice delegating small tasks and crediting others’ contributions.
How to Deal With Imposter Syndrome
No single approach has been proven to fix imposter syndrome, and the handful of studies that have tested one are mostly small (a 2020 review of 62 studies; a 2024 review of 31 interventions). What has been tested does tend to help. Here are the ones I recommend.
The Coué Method
Want to change how you talk to yourself? The Coué Method, from psychologist Émile Coué, reshapes self-talk in three steps:
- Choose an anti-imposter phrase. It can be a positive affirmation or a line of your own. Mine is “I got this” or “small wins.”
- Choose a safe space free from distraction. I like being outside; the fresh air and awe calm me.
- Choose a mental image to pair with the phrase. I picture a butterfly. Repeat the phrase while visualizing the image for a couple of minutes, twice a day.
Over time, your brain gets more hardwired to believe the thoughts you rehearse.
It sounds almost too simple. What you’re doing is catching an automatic negative thought and swapping in a more accurate one, often enough that the new thought starts to feel like the default. Pairing your phrase with a vivid mental picture gives your brain a faster way back to it under stress. It certainly helped with my imposter syndrome!
Pro Tip: When you catch yourself thinking “I don’t deserve this” or “it was just luck,” pause, note the imposter thought, then repeat your phrase and picture your image. Do it before meetings, before speaking, whenever it strikes.
“Go Mad” for 30 Minutes
I promise you’re not as weird as you think. We all have parts we hide. A lot of imposter syndrome comes from those hidden parts, so facing them can defuse them.
Grab paper and write down everything you feel you’re hiding: your most ridiculous beliefs, the parts of your character you’re least proud of, everything that makes you feel like a fraud. You won’t erase these things, but externalizing them puts them in perspective, and it genuinely feels like a weight off your chest.
If you’re brave, share a few with a trusted friend. Maybe you wrote that you feel boring or not very funny, and a good friend will remind you that you’re actually hilarious, or point out the kind things you do that you’ve quietly discounted. That kind of conversation can help you feel more understood, and it might bring to light positive parts of your character you hadn’t considered.
The Spotlight Effect
The Spotlight Effect is our tendency to believe we’re being noticed and scrutinized far more than we actually are. If you have imposter syndrome, this is almost certainly you.
Reality check: people don’t watch our failures nearly as closely as we imagine. They’re busy with their own.
Thomas Edison is often quoted as reframing his many failed lightbulb attempts as “10,000 ways that won’t work.” The wording may be apocryphal, but history does remember his persistence and forget the setbacks.
Action step: in moments of doubt or fear, right before a presentation or meeting where imposter syndrome usually strikes, pause and remind yourself, “Others are far less focused on my mistakes than I am; they’re busy worrying about their own.”
The Power of Small Wins
A student recently asked me whether they should take on more risks. How did I answer? With a resounding yes, if they’re purposeful. Purposeful risks that pay off create a small “winner’s rush” that builds momentum.
But more success can feed more imposter syndrome if you don’t let wins sink in. Success needs absorbing time to become part of who you are. A Harvard Business Review analysis of nearly 12,000 journal entries from 238 employees found that capturing small wins boosts motivation and self-confidence. So keep a success journal or gratitude journal and log your wins as they happen.
Reverse Mentorship
Traditional mentorship has an experienced person guiding a less experienced one. Reverse mentorship flips it, letting younger or less experienced people lead, which challenges the idea that value comes only from seniority. How to do it:
- Pair up with someone who brings different skills or perspective.
- Set goals. Name the areas where you feel insecure.
- Engage regularly, taking turns teaching each other something new.
Keep a Success File
Writing things down is a reliable remedy for self-doubt. When the doubts hit, pull out a journal and list five things you’re grateful for, or screenshot and save proof of your wins in a folder labeled “Success File”: kind emails, awards, a comment from someone you helped. Sometimes we forget that we are worth it, so I want you to start gathering those reminders now.
Embrace Public Vulnerability
Feeling brave? Try openly sharing your doubts, fears, and perceived failures. Start somewhere safe and appropriate, like a blog post, a team meeting, or a talk where you feel secure. Focus on the obstacles, the moments of doubt, and most importantly, what you learned or how you grew.
Real-life example: Before J.K. Rowling became one of the most famous authors alive, she faced a string of rejections and serious personal hardship, including a spell on welfare and multiple publishers turning down the Harry Potter manuscript. In her 2008 Harvard commencement address, she spoke candidly about the upside of hitting rock bottom: “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.”
Default to Yes
If you’re not already overloaded with responsibility, try changing your default answer to yes:
- Apply for that job even though you don’t meet every single requirement.
- Take the project your boss offers, even if you’re not yet sure how you’ll pull it off.
- Give yourself permission to fail, even if it means risking rejection.
Side Note: If you’re a people-pleaser who’s already buried in commitments, this tip is not for you. You may need to learn to say no instead, and protect your energy for what actually matters.
Digital Detox
Constant social media invites unfair comparison. Influencers and highlight reels can quietly convince you that you don’t measure up, even though you’re seeing other people’s hand-picked best moments against your own unedited reality. So, to stop comparing, I set a goal to take a yearly or biyearly digital detox, unplugging from social media and email for, say, 10 days. People tend to come back comparing less and feeling happier. You can do it from home or while you’re traveling as a remote worker. Learn how in the video below:
One thread that keeps coming up in the research is self-compassion, treating yourself with the kindness you’d offer a friend. In a 2023 trial with 227 college students, a four-week self-compassion exercise lowered imposter feelings and perfectionism compared with a control group. If you try one thing on this list, make it kinder self-talk.
What Actually Helps, According to the Research
The tactics above line up with what the research has found so far. There’s still no single validated approach, but the studies that exist point to a consistent four-part progression:
- Name it and normalize it. Simply learning what imposter syndrome is, how common it is, and that it isn’t a character flaw takes a surprising amount of charge out of it. Group settings help here, because hearing accomplished peers admit the same fears breaks the isolation that feeds the cycle.
- Challenge the “fraud” story. Catch the automatic thought (“I only got this because of luck”), examine the evidence against it, and retrain how you explain your own successes. The “go mad” exercise, the success file, and the Coué method are all doing versions of this work.
- Soften the self-criticism. Shame and harsh self-judgment are what keep imposter syndrome going, and self-compassion is the most consistently supported antidote in the research. The aim is to talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a capable friend who’s doubting themselves.
- Let the wins stick. Actively internalize evidence of your competence (the success file again) and, where you can, push back on the environment that amplifies the feeling. The feeling rarely disappears for good, but it shows up less often and gets easier to recognize.
Notably, the very first study to describe imposter syndrome back in 1978 already recommended strikingly similar moves: examining how you explain your successes, dropping “magical” over-preparation rituals, and using group conversation to confront the implausibility of having fooled everyone.
Who Gets Imposter Syndrome?
Almost anyone. Students, professionals, and wildly accomplished people alike. Michelle Obama, Maya Angelou, and Neil Gaiman have all spoken about it. Here’s Tom Hanks admitting he sometimes feels like a fraud (timestamp 0:18):
One myth worth retiring is that imposter syndrome is a women-only experience. It never was. Early work framed it that way, but later research finds men and women report imposter thoughts at broadly similar rates, and that those thoughts are situational rather than a fixed trait (MIT Sloan, 2022). What does raise the odds is being underrepresented in a competitive setting. Women in male-dominated fields, along with racial or ethnic minorities and first-generation students in high-pressure academic environments, tend to report higher imposter feelings, and the usual reasons are stereotyping, isolation, and a lack of same-background role models (a 2020 review of 62 studies).
One striking thread in the research is that the environment often matters more than the individual. A term-long study of 818 STEM students found that first-generation students in classes they saw as non-competitive felt no more like imposters than their classmates. In classes they saw as competitive, their day-to-day imposter feelings spiked, and those feelings went along with worse attendance, lower engagement, and lower grades.
That moves part of the solution away from “fix yourself” and toward changing the context: fewer needlessly competitive norms, clearer unwritten rules, and mentors who share your background. If you’re a leader or a teacher, that’s influence you have over other people’s imposter syndrome as well as your own.
And the effects are real. Imposter feelings are strongly linked to anxiety and burnout, especially emotional exhaustion. In a 2025 review of 30 studies of health workers, one sample of medical students showed people with high anxiety were about six times more likely to score as imposters, and in another, of physical therapists, the most emotionally exhausted were more likely still. Left unaddressed, imposter syndrome can dent job performance and satisfaction, too. It can also turn into a loop, where the self-doubt leads to overwork and the exhaustion that follows deepens the self-doubt.
A Note on That 70% Stat
You’ll see “70% of people experience imposter syndrome” everywhere. Treat it skeptically. Nobody has traced that exact figure to a primary source, and a 2020 review of 62 studies found rates anywhere from 9% to 82%, depending on who was surveyed and which questionnaire and cut-off the researchers used. What’s fair to say is that imposter feelings are common, and in high-achieving and professional groups some studies put the figure above 60%.
Perfectionism & Imposter Syndrome
Perfectionists often set themselves up for the very inadequacy they fear. It’s one of the most common and self-reinforcing routes into imposter syndrome.
Example: Picture a graphic designer named Alex. A project has already been client-approved, but Alex keeps tweaking it, hunting for any flaw that might “expose” them as less skilled than people think. The work ships late because the quest for perfection paralyzed them. The behavior meant to prevent being seen as a fraud is what creates the missed deadline they’ll then beat themselves up over.
At the root is a deep fear of failure and exposure. Perfectionists dread mistakes, overcompensate to hide perceived flaws, and feel they must conceal any imperfection to keep their status. That constant pressure and fear of being “found out” is fertile ground for imposter syndrome.
The Origin of Imposter Syndrome
In 1978, two psychologists at Georgia State University published the first paper on the imposter phenomenon, drawing on more than 150 high-achieving women who felt they didn’t deserve their success. It was a descriptive write-up of their own clients and students, with no comparison group; the questionnaire that now bears one author’s name came later. Because the sample was so narrow, the original women-only framing has since been widely revised. The core idea has lasted across decades, genders, and fields.
What Is the Opposite of Imposter Syndrome?
The rough opposite is the Dunning-Kruger effect, when people with limited skill overestimate their ability. It’s widely cited and just as widely oversimplified, and researchers still argue about how much of the pattern is a real effect, so don’t take the cartoon version too seriously.
Can you have both? Yes. You can feel like a fraud in one domain and overconfident in another. Both cause problems if unaddressed; if overconfidence is your risk, read up on survivorship bias.
Bonus: Stop Feeling Like a Fraud
To recap, here’s my video on imposter syndrome and how to stop feeling like a fraud:
And if you need it framed as a strength, Atlassian co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes turned his own imposter syndrome into an asset in this TED Talk:
It’s OK to feel like an imposter sometimes. Just don’t let it define you, and don’t go it alone. Alongside working on imposter syndrome directly, building your underlying confidence and self-esteem gives you a sturdier foundation.
What’s your imposter syndrome story? Let me know in the comments. Next, read How to Look and Feel Confident.
References
- Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice. PDF
- Bravata, D. M., et al. (2020). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: a systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine. PMC
- Global prevalence of imposter syndrome in health service providers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2025). BMC Psychology. PMC
- Interventions addressing the impostor phenomenon: a scoping review (2024). Frontiers in Psychology. PMC
- New research debunks 4 myths about impostor syndrome (2022). MIT Sloan. MIT Sloan
- Liu, S., Wei, M., & Russell, D. (2023). Effects of a brief self-compassion intervention for college students with impostor phenomenon. Journal of Counseling Psychology. PubMed
- Canning, E. A., LaCosse, J., Kroeper, K. M., & Murphy, M. C. (2020). Feeling like an imposter: the effect of perceived classroom competition on the daily psychological experiences of first-generation college students. Social Psychological and Personality Science. SAGE
- Young, V. (2011). The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, five competence types. Impostor Syndrome Institute
- Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2011). The power of small wins. Harvard Business Review. HBR
