Charlotte Bielenberg, Fabio Ibrahim, Philipp Yorck Herzberg
{"title":"The impact of workplace environment on the impostor phenomenon among early career starters","authors":"Charlotte Bielenberg, Fabio Ibrahim, Philipp Yorck Herzberg","doi":"10.1016/j.crbeha.2025.100175","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Characterized by feelings of self-doubt and a fear of exposure despite objective success, the impostor phenomenon (IP) affects a significant portion of high achievers, yet its manifestation in early career starters outside academia and healthcare remains under-researched. This study investigated the effect of external work predictors including performance pressure, specific business areas, and gender on IP by focusing on this unique and under-researched population. A sample of 353 professional career starters with academic degrees participated in this online study. The results indicated that performance pressure had a positive effect on IP, particularly on key dimensions such as Competence Doubt, Alienation and Other–Self Divergence, whereas specific business areas did not have a significant impact on the experience of IP. Additionally, gender was identified as a relevant predictor for IP in general and a significant moderator in the relationship between performance pressure and impostor levels, revealing that women exhibited more impostor feelings. This study addresses a notable gap in the literature by concentrating on the experiences of early career starters within non-academic work environments and external predictors caused by the workforce.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72746,"journal":{"name":"Current research in behavioral sciences","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100175"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current research in behavioral sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666518225000087","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Psychology","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Characterized by feelings of self-doubt and a fear of exposure despite objective success, the impostor phenomenon (IP) affects a significant portion of high achievers, yet its manifestation in early career starters outside academia and healthcare remains under-researched. This study investigated the effect of external work predictors including performance pressure, specific business areas, and gender on IP by focusing on this unique and under-researched population. A sample of 353 professional career starters with academic degrees participated in this online study. The results indicated that performance pressure had a positive effect on IP, particularly on key dimensions such as Competence Doubt, Alienation and Other–Self Divergence, whereas specific business areas did not have a significant impact on the experience of IP. Additionally, gender was identified as a relevant predictor for IP in general and a significant moderator in the relationship between performance pressure and impostor levels, revealing that women exhibited more impostor feelings. This study addresses a notable gap in the literature by concentrating on the experiences of early career starters within non-academic work environments and external predictors caused by the workforce.