Do i deserve this? Hochstapler syndrome characterized by pathological self-doubt

Affected women and men respond differently to criticism

Excellence in school or university, praise and promotion at work - what gives others a reason to celebrate and celebrate is more of a cause for embarrassment for those with the Imposter Syndrome. "Did I deserve this?" This question is asked again and again by those affected. Because people who suffer from the high stack syndrome think that all achievements are not due to their performance. A new study shows that this can actually lead to worse performance - at least for men.

Anyone who secretly considers himself an impostor and thinks his services are based on luck, chance and other people can actually worsen his performance. Especially if there is still negative feedback. This was demonstrated by a team from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in a psychological study paper that recently appeared in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

In the case of the imposter syndrome, sufferers think that they do not owe their achievements and achievements to their own abilities. (Image: Drobot Dean / fotolia.com)

Hochstapler syndrome was once declared a female problem

In the so-called imposter syndrome sufferers believe that they have not earned their achievements and achievements and they are overestimated by other people. This phenomenon has been known since the 1970s and was first described by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne A. Imes. At first it was thought that mainly women are affected by this syndrome. It is now known that men suffer as well and that particularly successful people tend to feel that way.

Gender differences among self-styled impostors

The team led by Brooke Gadzag and Rebecca L. Badaway has shown in his recent study that men and women deal differently with the impostor syndrome. When affected men are confronted with criticism or negative feedback, they tend to experience a decline in performance, whereas women are more likely to respond to it with more effort. Here are the results of the study at a glance:

• Overall, men with constellation syndrome show stronger responses to performance than women.
• Under pressure, affected men have more anxiety.
• As a result of criticism, male sufferers performed worse than women.
• Women with the syndrome increase their efforts for negative feedback.

Course of the study

Online questionnaires were used to search for people with this syndrome. Certain questions identified those that tend to have such patterns of thinking. The subjects thus found were then to solve tasks and got to this negative feedback, regardless of their actual performance.

Men with the syndrome give up faster

In the male subjects with congestion syndrome, it usually came to fast performance and more stress. "Men are even more stressed and then give up faster," said Gazdag in a press release from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. That is quite different for women. They would have gone even further, if they knew that their result was still viewed by someone else or they received bad feedback.

Theoretical explanation of the study leader

"Our study was exploratory, but the result can be justified theoretically," said Gazdag. It corresponds to the assumptions of gender theory, according to which men are very oriented towards competencies and achievement, while women are more relationally oriented. "It fits in with the female stereotype, and it makes sense that women work harder if they know someone else is seeing their result," says Gazdag. (Vb)