Insights into the complexity of the impostor phenomenon among trainees and professionals in STEM and medicine

Although the imposter phenomenon (IP), characterized by fear of exposure as a fraud, is prevalent in higher education, studies disagree about its dimensionality, its relation to individual characteristics, and how IP relates to self-evaluation. Analyzing data from 959 graduate students and professionals in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and medicine, we examined the psychometric properties of the Clance IP scale and evaluated IP’s conceptual clarity in relation to demographics and self-evaluation. Factor analyses yielded three factors: Self-Doubt, Fear of Evaluation, and Luck. Older age groups, people currently not in-training, and men had lower sub-scale IP scores. We created four IP groups using factor scores and found that “Fear IP” (low self-doubt/high fear) and “High IP” (high self-doubt/high fear) groups reported less positive self-evaluations than “Self-Doubt” IP (high self-doubt/low fear) and “Low IP” (low self-doubt/low fear) groups. Findings suggest different types of IP that includes more strategic self-presentations of ability, and the defining feature of IP may be fear rather than self-doubt, with implications on training in higher education.