Are You Better Than Me? Competitive Work Climates Fuel Impostorism via Upward Social Comparisons
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21208899 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sanne Feenstra (0000-0003-4191-9411, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, corresponding author), Felenka Phillips (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Christopher T Begeny (0000-0003-4734-8840, University of Exeter), Michelle K Ryan (0000-0003-1091-9275, Australian National University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 510-521 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/19485506251348803 |
| OpenAlex | W4412394499 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 61 |
The impostor phenomenon refers to an experience whereby individuals believe that others overestimate their abilities, prompting fears of being exposed as impostors. Research has predominantly conceptualized impostorism as a trait-based phenomenon and focused on examining individual-level predictors. This offers a limited understanding of how organizational contexts fuel impostorism. To address this gap, we examine the role of organizations’ work climates in eliciting employees’ impostorism. Across six studies, using experimental, single- and multi-waved survey methods ( N = 1,288) we demonstrate that when an organization’s work climate emphasizes competition, employees’ impostorism increases. We further show that this effect is partly explained by employees’ tendency to compare themselves to higher-performing colleagues in such competitive work climates. These findings have important implications for how we conceptualize and understand the impostor phenomenon—suggesting it is a feature not just of particular individuals, but of particular work climates
Engineering · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges
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| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |