Negative performance evaluation in the imposter phenomenon

The imposter phenomenon (IP) is associated with a bias towards negative evaluation of one’s own performances. This study employs an online problem-solving task to investigate this bias. Participants (graduate students from the UK, US, and Europe; n  = 163) solved reasoning problems and subsequently...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCurrent psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 43; no. 10; pp. 9300 - 9308
Main Authors Gadsby, Stephen, Hohwy, Jakob
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.03.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Accuracy
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Bias
Estimates
Feedback
Performance evaluation
Philosophy
Psychology
Self esteem
Social Sciences
Success
Imposter syndrome
Biased reasoning
Imposter phenomenon
Performance evaluation bias
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Summary:The imposter phenomenon (IP) is associated with a bias towards negative evaluation of one’s own performances. This study employs an online problem-solving task to investigate this bias. Participants (graduate students from the UK, US, and Europe; n  = 163) solved reasoning problems and subsequently evaluated their performance. Participants high in IP evaluated their performances more negatively than participants low in IP. This pattern was observed both during the task and after completion. It was also observed in objective assessments (estimates of accuracy) and comparative assessments (estimates of rank amongst participants). Performance evaluation bias was not associated with a bias in the selection of feedback about performance nor was it mediated by depression or self-esteem.
ISSN:1046-1310
1936-4733
DOI:10.1007/s12144-023-05030-0