Impostor Syndrome

What is impostor syndrome ?

Impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. The aim of this section is to make supervisors aware of why people might not want to step up into leadership roles, and what to do. Also for people with impostor syndrome to find ways to overcome its limitations.

While this is fairly common amongst scientists, women scientists tend to exhibit the syndrome more than their male counterparts. Thus, imposter syndrome is closely linked to gender biases.

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1811/1811.11836.pdf

The article used data of ~500 US astronomers (both male and female) who where graduate students in 2006/7 and got their PhD in astronomy or astrophysics, but after that left the field. They analyse the career path of those persons making a survey where they had to ask questions regarding their advisors, 2-body problem and impostor syndrome. The surveys were made in 2007, 2012, 2015, in order to follow the career path and decisions of those persons. The results show that one of the most important factors for them to leave the field was the relationship with the advisor and the 2-body problem.

When they analysed the gender in the answers they got that that women were significantly more affected by imposter syndrome, tend to have worse relationships with their advisors, and were significantly more likely to have relocated for a partner’s career or to have lived apart from their partner for the purpose of work or study.

Summary by Prof. Yamila Miguel, Leiden Observatory