Is imposter syndrome a sign of greatness?

Some of the most successful people in history have suffered from secret fear that they’re terrible at their jobs. “I am not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people,” John
Steinbeck wrote in his diary in 1938. “I always feel like something of an impostor. I don’t know what I’m doing,” echoed actress Jodie Foster, speaking at a 2007 Women in Entertainment Power 100 event where she was the guest of honor. But is this anxiety-inducing insecurity actually an asset?

It’s estimated that 70% of people have imposter syndrome—the feeling that they don’t deserve to be where they are in life. But when I took an imposter syndrome test, my results were fairly low: A score of 80 or higher shows an intense feeling of imposter syndrome, 61 to 80 shows frequent experience, and 41 to 60 shows moderate experience. I scored 46, barely making it into the moderate category.

It’s not that I’m constantly confident. I have plenty of insecurities and worries—skills I know I need to improve and areas where I struggle—but I don’t think I’m a complete imposter at work, either.

True imposters don’t suffer imposter syndrome

There is evidence to suggest that imposter syndrome correlates with success—and that those who don’t suffer imposter symptom are more likely to be the real frauds. People with imposter syndrome tend to be perfectionists, which means they’re likely to spend hours working overtime to make sure they excel in every single field. So if you do suffer from imposter syndrome, chances are you’re doing a pretty good job.

Conversely, those of us who don’t have imposter syndrome might have reason to question their abilities: High levels of self-confidence can be a result of “Dunning-Kruger effect,” which essentially means you can’t recognize your own ignorance.

Jessica Collet, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame who has conducted research on the prevalence of imposter syndrome among women, tells Quartz the Dunning-Kruger effect can be summarized as “people who are too dumb to know that they’re dumb.” She adds:

“They don’t feel at all like frauds—they feel they know exactly what they’re doing and how could other people not know what they’re doing. But it turns out, they don’t know enough to know how little they know.”

http://qz.com/606727/is-imposter-syndrome-a-sign-of-greatness/