An Explanation Comes To Mind
George Francis on the rise of “imposter syndrome” – and its possible causes:
This study tracked 818 college students to look for what triggered the syndrome… Their most illuminating results were the simplest (as is usually the case) – the correlation matrix of their variables. Exactly in line with the theory that imposter syndrome is caused by incompetence, they find low course grades, low attendance, low course engagement (lack of curiosity), and classroom competition (the perception of others working harder than you) predict feelings of being an imposter. People have imposter syndrome because they are incompetent people pretending to be something they are not – a good student… Despite the good evidence for imposter syndrome being caused by students actually being imposters, the study never once brings itself to mention why low grades are associated with feelings of being an imposter.
It’s a topic we’ve touched on before, when marvelling at the woes of Celia Edell, a “feminist philosopher interested in social justice,” including “critical race theory,” and her struggle to be taken seriously. Ms Edell, who signalled her gravitas and intellectual heft via the medium of endlessly changing Day-Glo hair colour, is accustomed to making claims with no obvious evidential support. When not, that is, making claims for which any evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary. We’re told by Ms Edell, who is also an “online creative,” that her feelings of being “unable to internalise” her own awesomeness are a result of sexism and “oppression,” not something more humdrum and, dare I say it, plausible.
As noted at the time, it may be worth considering the extent to which Ms Edell’s chosen environment, academia, has been politicised and annexed by the left, such that the ludicrous Nina Power, who boasts of finding rioting and arson “uplifting,” is employed as a senior lecturer, and such that “critical race theory,” so favoured by Ms Edell, is deemed intellectually respectable.
If a person’s career is even partly dependent on signalling their possession of the approved, rather narrow political views – and Ms Edell’s are almost exactly what you’d expect – then problems may arise if that signalling trumps expectations of coherence, probity, and rigour. You may score Career-Advancing Lefty Points by, for instance, invoking “whiteness” or “patriarchy,” or some other intersectional woo, or by claiming that women are paid less than men for doing exactly the same work; but a mismatch with reality seems likely to exacerbate any feelings of fraudulence.
Update, via the comments:
As Mr Francis notes in the piece:
Maybe all this concern about imposter syndrome is just caused by those with a political agenda grasping at straws to claim their favourite groups are oppressed in insidious ways. But with substantial affirmative action for women and ethnic minorities, I wouldn’t really be surprised if many had got into prestigious positions with a sense of being an imposter. Any intelligent black person at an Ivy League must wonder whether their admittance had something to do with their race.
Given the prevalence of racial favouritism in admissions policies – and given the desperation to find even remotely qualified applicants, with all the inadequacy and barrel-scraping that entails – the rise of ‘imposter syndrome’ is hardly surprising. Nor is the correlation with poor grades. Not only will there be doubts as to competence for the reason quoted above, which can be rather unfair to the capable, but there will also be plenty of actual and obvious incompetence – people invited into an environment for which they have neither the temperament nor cognitive wherewithal. Many of whom will drop out of courses beyond their abilities and find consolation, of a sort, in Angry Studies activism.
Heather Mac Donald, among others, has been documenting this phenomenon for quite some time.
As Amy Wax put it not too long ago,
On the one hand, all good people are for affirmative action. That’s a sign of virtue. On the other hand, to talk about the predicate, the reason that affirmative action is needed, which is that there are these gaps in educational achievement and proficiency, is verboten. So, we kind of twisted ourselves in knots that we have to embrace something but deny the factual underpinning of it.
And so, to a very large extent, the feelings of mismatch and fraudulence, of being an imposter, and any consequent alienation and resentment, and crippling debt, are caused by the very people who claim to be fixing things.
Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
You may score Career-Advancing Lefty Points by, for instance, invoking “whiteness” or “patriarchy,” or some other intersectional woo, or by claiming that women are paid less than men for doing exactly the same work; but a mismatch with reality seems likely to exacerbate any feelings of fraudulence.
That.
That.
Well, in Ms Edell’s case, it’s worth noting how vague and unsubstantiated are her claims of being oppressed and of thereby feeling fraudulent, of feeling that her “success is a result of luck rather than ability.” One might think that our Philosopher Queen, our self-styled intellectual, would be accustomed to offering evidence, even some suitably damning anecdotes. One might think that this would be felt as an obligation, even a reflex, a habit. But no. Instead, and like so much else, we’re expected to take this alleged victimhood on trust – which, given her tendency to declare things that are clearly untrue, is a big ask.
And as Ms Edell’s supposedly macho and oppressive workplace is, or was, the Clown Quarter of academia, where lefties dominate, are we to assume that this crushingly-oppressive-yet-oddly-unspecified sexism, the cause of all her insecurity and woe, is coming from other lefties?
That.
The nearest we get to anything substantive regarding Ms Edell’s own alleged oppression, supposedly the basis of the article, is her claim that male peers and students sometimes dare to question her dubious assertions. Say, regarding the supposed gender gap in pay. Which she assumes couldn’t possibly happen to a man making similar, equally dubious claims. And this is while admitting that she struggles to articulate these things and to sound confident. No other personal hardship is mentioned.
The rest of the article is the standard bag of dishonesties and doctrinaire question-begging – the false and endlessly debunked claim about female earnings being the opener. Apparently, we’re expected to blame men for women’s choices, regarding interests, priorities, career paths and motherhood, for instance. We’re also supposed to be outraged that demographic variations exist at all, regardless of how and why they come about. Clearly, we’re supposed to think such things unjust by definition.
And this is the standard throughout.
Regarding Miss Edell, a blast from the past…
Two swings, two misses.
Three strikes, and she’s out.
Claims of systemic this and that are so tiresome. If it is so bad, surely you must have examples.
The idea that any financial outcomes different from uniform are unjust is the talk of a lazy person. Sure, there are a few people with inherited wealth, but in the past 50 years almost all billionaires worldwide have gotten rich on their own. Even Trump turned a few million in family money into billions. Most millionaires in the US run a small plumbing company or fast food franchises and worked their butts off. The lawyers and doctors who are rich worked harder than these lazy people are willing to do. Because I decided med school was too much work, I do not envy doctors. I have had several tell me they wished they had chosen my career.
As to women and $: In the US, single women in their 20s in major cities make more than men the same age. There are plenty of high-pay trades completely open to women because you can start your own painting, roofing, landscaping business but women don’t want those jobs.
The only thing truly ‘systemic’ is the utter bad faith of those employing the term.
She’s a “philosopher.” She thinks very deeply.
She’s a “philosopher
“Did you BS last week…”
People these days seem to think that “philosopher” means you can just talk with no regard for logic, evidence, or what previous thinkers have said. You keep using that word….
Interesting. I would say that maybe the idea of imposter syndrome is not quite right in this situation. Some other term is needed.
I think we all to some degree have, from time to time, suffered from imposter syndrome. I know that at work when I have been promoted or a particularly difficult problem arises, I wonder if I am really in the right job. It’s then that I compare myself to others who seem so much more on top of their brief. It’s only when you talk to each other that you realise that we all (mostly) suffer from this condition.
In contrast I’ve been in meetings where people talk absolute rubbish about something I do understand, yet they do it with supreme confidence, sufficient to impress others. B*ll-sh*tt*rs lik ethis will almost certainly never suffer imposter syndrome. {I was going to say, these people are called salesmen but that’s a common, rather than absolute match}. Cynically, these people seem to get promoted.
“In contrast I’ve been in meetings where people talk absolute rubbish about something I do understand, yet they do it with supreme confidence, sufficient to impress others.
In academia all you have to do is recycle the same set of platitudes in different order, mixed with made-up words carrying about as much significance as the theology of Scientology (neo- this, cis- that…) along with a stew of connectives like “at the intersection of…”
Throw in your pronouns, another made up word indicating how you like your sex or lack thereof, and your self-diagnosed disabilities, and tenure can’t be too far down the road.
It may be that many people use imposter when they are talking about garden-variety insecurity. I see this a lot among high-earning indie authors who worry that the gravy train they’re riding (which they richly earn, I might add; it’s tough writing consistently appealing books in commercial fiction), would end with their next book.
Fortunately, I don’t suffer from that. My sales are shit, so I know I’m incompetent.
David and company: Is “Brit” derogatory? And if so, what is preferred? And if not now, did it used to be, and how much? (I saw a comment to this effect in a discussion of the recent banning of writer Mercedes Lackey for Wrong Speech.)
Is “Brit” derogatory?
Um, no.
Zit-faced shitbag is, but not Brit.
Thanks, David. Interesting that the commenter I read said she and the folks she knew saw it as derogatory back when she lived there before she moved to America in 1970.
I certainly do not want to be unintentionally insulting. Only intentional insults made for lighthearted humorous effect which will be taken in the same way. Very much want to maintain the convivial atmosphere of this blog.
Rule Zit-Faced Shitbaggia, Zit-Faced Shitbaggia rules the waves !!
Today, in the culturally bereft Great White North, we celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. Why? Reasons. It seems only us hosers and the Scots celebrate this occasion.
In Canada, we refer to it as the May 2-4 (pronounced two-four) weekend because at one time we bought our beer in a case of 24 bottles–affectionately known as a 2-4. Only diehard drinkers and people with money to spare buy their beer this way now. The holiday seldom occurs on the actual 24th of May. Last year was the first time it had happened in many years.
Things have not always gone swimmingly on Victoria Day. For example, in 1881, the passenger ferry Victoria overturned in the Thames river in London, Ontario (the city I recently moved to) killing 182 people who were unable to swim to safety. In 1896 a bridge collapsed in Victoria, British Columbia killing streetcar passengers on their way to celebrate Victoria Day.
I, for one, am wary of any form of transportation and things bearing the name Victoria on this holiday. But a day off is a day off.
This has been a Canadian Corner moment.
“It seems only us hosers…”
TAKE OFF!
This has been a Canadian Corner moment.
Coming up next…how the Commander of our largest airbase got away with serial murder and the theft of tens of thousands of panties…
David, does the Queen avoid mirrors?
The woke eat their own.
…how the Commander of our largest airbase got away with serial murder and the theft of tens of thousands of panties…
He is in a Canadian hoosegow, but gets to keep his pension for some odd reason – they even made a movie about him.
…how the Commander of our largest airbase got away with serial murder and the theft of tens of thousands of panties…
Presumably he got away with it by never making mean tweets and not getting “Welcome Aboard” tattooed on his penis.
they even made a movie about him
Not the first time Gary “Lumberg” Cole played a psychopathic murdering military officer. He played Jeffrey MacDonald in the made for TV movie Fatal Vision.
This book won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel.
That is appallingly bad prose. Further evidence of the politicization of the awards.
So, if I call some spotty shitbag a Brit, he’s not going to be offended? But VV is a no-no… How are you on the term “Gooner”?…as in, “I hope those Gooners enjoy playing on Thursday night, because they’re shite.”
This book won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel.
From the Amazon description:
Good. Mars. Needs. Women.
This book won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel.
Blimey. I’m assuming the recipient was chosen for something other than literary deftness.
Is “Brit” derogatory?
I believe it was originally meant to be offensive when widely used by Irish republicans in the 1970s. This backfired rather badly when many, particularly younger, British people enthusiastically appropriated it.
Historically it’s been quite hard to insult British people as we generally don’t rise to the bait (which really winds them up), However this may be changing as the recent influx of “new Brits” includes many whose forbearance of any perceived slander is sadly lacking.
Mars. Needs.
WomenAngry Feminists.Blimey. I’m assuming the recipient was chosen for something other than literary deftness.
As I understand it, the book is a sort of science-fictional Hidden Figures–so prose quality doesn’t matter, only relentless promulgation of racial and sexual politics.
I have spent the last fifteen minutes or so laughing maniacally at this:
https://twitter.com/BidenLs/status/1528822530185764866
I feel like a supervillain.
I caused quite a stir at work by alleging that in a technical field there was no such thing as impostor syndrome – there is by definition a right and wrong way to do it, and if you don’t know the right way and how to evaluate your work against it you’re incompetent rather than an impostor. Boy, did that agitate the front-end developers.
The woke eat their own.
I read all the extant Valdemar books in my twenties. My recollection was that they were fairy tales for bookish thirteen-year-old girls. The first book is very much an allegory for the aforementioned bookish thirteen-year-old girl running away from home and discovering SFcon culture. All of the much vaunted First Gay Characters in SF were the typical happy fluffy bunny types (basically moon-eyed thirteen-year-old girls in men’s bodies). They’re popular, but so are the Sweet Valley High novellas.
I do wonder how important the con circuit is any more to F/SF authors; my impression is that with the fandom having gone both mainstream and digital it’s probably become irrelevant.
Cross-dressing men in lingerie at children’s “Night at the Museum” event.
the woke eat their own
In the latest installment of this shameful episode, the SFWA which banned Mercedes Lackey for saying “colored” tweeted a tasteless joke making reference to the comfort women of WWII: “Comfort elves” are available free of charge for conference members.
I have a fairly live-and-let-live attitude towards humor, but the bullies at SFWA deserve no forbearance whatsoever.
“Teacher” has a gender euphoria moment.
The disease festers: “He’s a good boy. He didn’t do nuffin.”
The progressive
retailrestaurant experience, Part 7893.and not getting “Welcome Aboard” tattooed on his penis.
Nah, mahn. Dem say, “Welcome to Canada and have a nice Moose Head”.
Sure it’s not “Welcome ladies, enjoy the ride, and watch your step while coming aboard”?
It may be that many people use imposter when they are talking about garden-variety insecurity.
I agree.
I caused quite a stir at work by alleging that in a technical field there was no such thing as impostor syndrome – there is by definition a right and wrong way to do it, and if you don’t know the right way and how to evaluate your work against it you’re incompetent rather than an impostor.
Most of us don’t work in technical fields though.
Imposter Syndrome is a major issue in teaching. It causes good teachers, or potential teachers, to freak out and lose the plot. I know I have suffered it several times, when changing schools, teaching new courses etc, taking on new resposibilities.
But Imposter Syndrome should be a brief thing. If it doesn’t fade, then it would seem that you are either fundamentally incompetent or insecure.
have a nice Moose Head
How did that song go?
“Moose, moose, I like a moose.
I’ve never had anything quite like a moose…”
I read all the extant Valdemar books in my twenties. My recollection was that they were fairy tales for bookish thirteen-year-old girls.
Umm…I have questions. Am I the only one with questions?
I’ve never had anything quite like a moose…”
I must confess, I really used to enjoy Moose Head. But my doctor made me give it up. He refused to treat the antler burns on my thighs.
Thought I would just get that out of the way so I can get a good night’s sleep. On the road again tomorrow.
Imposter Syndrome is a major issue in teaching. It causes good teachers, or potential teachers, to freak out and lose the plot.
Rabbit hole there a couple of directions but as something of an aside…I never felt true “imposter syndrome” but there were so many things that I thought were bad ideas that were the Rules Of The Day. Caution, geek speak… Top-down development was what I was taught in school. I would write code “inside-out” as I called it. Modules to do specific functions. I would hide my designs as much as I could, of course back then code reviews were a joke…kinda still are. Just a few years later, object-oriented development was a thing.
I wasted considerable credibility arguing against waterfall-style development. Things needed to be sketched out first, assumptions proved, and façades or similar to allow for tool replacement if/when possible (though I’m not convinced myself on this latter bit). Spiral development I called it. Bah…I didn’t understand that REAL engineering gets all the requirements 100% correct up front thus there is no need to revisit code. Say what you will about Fragile but waterfall is (hopefully?) dead.
I could say similar things about investment and finance but I’m a big ignoramous there as well. Stupidly trying to tell people their $240K home bought three years earlier was not truly worth $420K in 2007. Or at least it wouldn’t be some time shortly after 2007.
They just don’t give up.
Darleen: “…preaches that “all texts grapple with race…”
Not really, they mostly surrender abjectly.
Umm…I have questions. Am I the only one with questions?
They were held up to me as a shining example of fantasy written by and for women. I didn’t find the comparison flattering.
As Mr Francis notes in the piece:
Given the prevalence of racial favouritism in admissions policies, and given the desperation to find even remotely qualified applicants, with all the inadequacy and barrel-scraping that entails, the rise of ‘imposter syndrome’ is hardly surprising. Not only will there be doubts as to competence for the reason quoted above, which can be rather unfair to the capable, but there will also be plenty of actual and obvious incompetence – people invited into an environment for which they have neither the temperament nor cognitive wherewithal. Many of whom will drop out of courses beyond their abilities and find consolation, of a sort, in Angry Studies activism.
Heather Mac Donald has been documenting this for decades.
As Amy Wax put it not too long ago,
And so, to a very large extent, the feelings of mismatch and fraudulence, of being an imposter, and any consequent alienation and resentment, and crippling debt, are caused by the very people who claim to be fixing things.
Mars. Needs. Women.
Ah, but what is a Woman? If only we could know!
Then, of course, Earth Women could save Mars by identifying as Martian Women, and save all the bother of space travel, which is expensive, and can muss up your hair.
They were held up to me as a shining example of fantasy written by and for women. I didn’t find the comparison flattering.
And yet you say that you read all of them. And according to Wikipedia there are dozens. [ Riffles memory for old jokes. ]