Imposter Syndrome and Self-Deception

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100 (2):247-261 (2022)
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Abstract

ABSTRACT Many intelligent, capable, and successful individuals believe that their success is due to luck, and fear that they will someday be exposed as imposters. A puzzling feature of this phenomenon, commonly referred to as imposter syndrome, is that these same individuals treat evidence in ways that maintain their false beliefs and debilitating fears: they ignore and misattribute evidence of their own abilities, while readily accepting evidence in favour of their inadequacy. I propose a novel account of imposter syndrome as an instance of self-deception, whereby biased evidence treatment is driven by the motivational benefit of negative self-appraisal. This account illuminates a number of interconnected philosophical and scientific puzzles related to the explanation, definition, and value of imposter syndrome.

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original Gadsby, Stephen (2021) "Imposter Syndrome and Self-Deception". Australasian Journal of Philosophy 0():1-12

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Stephen Gadsby
University of Antwerp

Citations of this work

Self-Narrative, Affective Identification, and Personal Well-Being.Katherine Chieh-Ling Cheng - 2024 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 10 (1):79-95.

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References found in this work

Self-Deception Unmasked.Alfred R. Mele - 2001 - Princeton University Press.
The Epistemic Innocence of Motivated Delusions.Lisa Bortolotti - 2015 - Consciousness and Cognition (33):490-499.
Seeing Through Self-Deception.Annette Barnes - 1997 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Motivated irrationality.David Pears - 1984 - South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press.

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