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.

摘要

许多聪明、能干、成功的人认为他们的成功是靠运气，并担心他们有一天会被揭露为冒名顶替者。这种现象的一个令人费解的特征，通常被称为冒名顶替综合症，是这些人以维持他们错误信念和削弱恐惧的方式对待证据：他们忽视和错误地归因于他们自己能力的证据，同时欣然接受有利于他们的证据。不足。我提出了一种将冒名顶替综合症作为自我欺骗实例的新解释，其中有偏见的证据治疗是由负面自我评价的动机利益驱动的。这个帐户阐明了与冒名顶替综合症的解释、定义和价值相关的许多相互关联的哲学和科学难题。