Imposterism and perfectionism: Imposterism predicts rigid and self-critical perfectionism, but not narcissistic perfectionism

Abstract

Introduction Imposter phenomenology, often colloquially referred to as “imposter syndrome,” describes the feeling of inadequacy and intellectual phoniness experienced by some high achieving individuals. We hypothesized that imposterism would be correlated with perfectionism, but this effect would differ by subtype of perfectionism. Methods We recruited a sample of 278 undergraduate students from the University of Pennsylvania. Perfectionism was measured with the Big Three Perfectionism Scale. Imposterism was measured with the Clance Imposter Scale, and factor analysis was used to identify three previously identified factors of discounting one's success, luck, and feeling like a fraud. Results Imposterism was positively correlated with overall perfectionism. We found a significant interaction between imposterism and subtype of perfectionism, where imposterism was positively correlated with rigid and self-critical perfectionism, but not with narcissistic perfectionism. The discount latent factor of imposterism was specifically negatively correlated with narcissistic perfectionism. Conclusions Imposterism and perfectionism are closely related constructs, but the subtypes of rigid and self-critical perfectionism are more closely related to imposterism, while narcissistic perfectionism appears to have a null or inverse relationship.