Feeling like a fraud
Jarrett describes the impostor phenomenon, feeling like a fraud, which is surprisingly common in some walks of life, particularly the arts, science and academia. The term was first used by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in a study of highly successful women who were high achievers on every objective index but unable to internalise their success and take credit for it. They worried that each new task might expose them as frauds. The piece is a digest of research on the phenomenon.
Jarrett describes the impostor phenomenon, feeling like a fraud, which is surprisingly common in some walks of life, particularly the arts, science and academia. The term was first used by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in a study of highly successful women who were high achievers on every objective index but unable to internalise their success and take credit for it. They worried that each new task might expose them as frauds. The piece is a digest of research on the phenomenon.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-11-04.
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British Psychological Society. https://bps.org.uk/psychologist/feeling-fraud