Difference between revisions of "1954: Impostor Syndrome"

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Dr. Adams is introduced by Megan as "the world's top expert in ..."  Dr. Adams herself almost certainly recognizes that a large part of her success is due to the opportunities she had (for example, she probably had good mentoring as a graduate student and as a postdoc), plus some luck and good timing (perhaps she wrote a paper that received much more impact than she feels it merited).  She has also met other experts in her field and knows (from the outside) how intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative they are.  She begins to tell Megan and Cueball about how much better they are than she is, then suddenly realizes that she is (from the outside) every bit as intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative.  She herself is realizing that she is experiencing impostor syndrome.
 
Dr. Adams is introduced by Megan as "the world's top expert in ..."  Dr. Adams herself almost certainly recognizes that a large part of her success is due to the opportunities she had (for example, she probably had good mentoring as a graduate student and as a postdoc), plus some luck and good timing (perhaps she wrote a paper that received much more impact than she feels it merited).  She has also met other experts in her field and knows (from the outside) how intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative they are.  She begins to tell Megan and Cueball about how much better they are than she is, then suddenly realizes that she is (from the outside) every bit as intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative.  She herself is realizing that she is experiencing impostor syndrome.
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The tool text refers to {{w|dunning_kruger_effect|the Dunning-Kruger effect}}, where people lack the ability at a task to judge accurately their own (in)ability.  (For example, most people consider themselves above-average drivers; this is in part because bad drivers know sufficiently little about driving skill that they don't know that they're bad.)  Highly competent people, by contrast, often consider that because a task is easy for them, it must be easy for everyone, and thus they aren't particularly good at it in comparison to the average.  The joke is that the people who really are experts in the Dunning-Kruger effect don't realize it, and so won't participate in the conference as keynote speakers, while the random undergraduates don't realize how little they know about it and therefore are happy to present on the subject. 
  
  

Revision as of 15:05, 12 February 2018

Impostor Syndrome
It's actually worst in people who study the Dunning–Kruger effect. We tried to organize a conference on it, but the only people who would agree to give the keynote were random undergrads.
Title text: It's actually worst in people who study the Dunning–Kruger effect. We tried to organize a conference on it, but the only people who would agree to give the keynote were random undergrads.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an IMPOSTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.
Impostor syndrome is a common psychological phenomenon where successful individuals are unable to internalize their success and fear being exposed as a "fraud" or "impostor." Events and accomplishments that would seem to be evidence of competence, skill, intelligence, and so forth, are instead viewed (by the person) as luck, timing, and the ability to appear more confident/competent than they actually are. Wikipedia suggests that seventy percent of people experience this at one time or another.

Dr. Adams is introduced by Megan as "the world's top expert in ..." Dr. Adams herself almost certainly recognizes that a large part of her success is due to the opportunities she had (for example, she probably had good mentoring as a graduate student and as a postdoc), plus some luck and good timing (perhaps she wrote a paper that received much more impact than she feels it merited). She has also met other experts in her field and knows (from the outside) how intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative they are. She begins to tell Megan and Cueball about how much better they are than she is, then suddenly realizes that she is (from the outside) every bit as intelligent, hard-working, and brilliantly creative. She herself is realizing that she is experiencing impostor syndrome.

The tool text refers to the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people lack the ability at a task to judge accurately their own (in)ability. (For example, most people consider themselves above-average drivers; this is in part because bad drivers know sufficiently little about driving skill that they don't know that they're bad.) Highly competent people, by contrast, often consider that because a task is easy for them, it must be easy for everyone, and thus they aren't particularly good at it in comparison to the average. The joke is that the people who really are experts in the Dunning-Kruger effect don't realize it, and so won't participate in the conference as keynote speakers, while the random undergraduates don't realize how little they know about it and therefore are happy to present on the subject.


Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Cueball is addressed by Megan and another woman.]
Megan: This is Dr. Adams. She's a social psychologist and the world's top expert on imposter syndrome.
Dr. Adams: Haha, don't be silly! There are lots of scholars who have made more significant…
Dr. Adams: … Oh my God.


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Discussion

I mean, what's to explain here? Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect and then re-read the comic, if you didn't get it on the first try... I guess these two phenomenons also bar me from actually creating the wiki page :D 172.68.215.103 14:30, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

One could easily assume that virtually everyone who edits this page would be suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect; after all, how many experts in psychological diagnosis could there be in this community. (UNLESS they're feeling too insecure about their accomplishments to muster the confidence needed to post their thoughts ...?)Mr. I (talk) 15:20, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

I think this assumption would be wrong - or at least very inaccurate. I would assume that most part (if not all) of this community is very able to see that they are no experts on psychology (except, of course, of those who actually are). That said, I'd think Randall isn't, either. However this would not stop neither him from making jokes about the concepts nor "us" from trying to explain it - if only by copying the text from wikipedia and/or building upon the explanation given there. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 15:33, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the current text misunderstands the role of general intelligence and domain-specific skills in the D-K effect. Nothing I've read suggests that intellectual capacity has much to do with one's ability to accurately estimate performance levels; instead, it seems to be largely based on unfamiliarity with what good and bad performance looks like in whatever domain is being measured. In other words, it's not stupid people who think they're better drivers than they actually are; it's people who are actually bad drivers. The D-K effect is EXACTLY that non-experts will claim high-level expertise, while genuine experts will disclaim it. (See figures 1-4 of the original paper: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.363.1120&rep=rep1&type=pdf) 162.158.79.131 20:56, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

That sounds correct to me. I'm no expert, but aren't psychologists generally very careful to speak only in terms of domain-specific "specialized" intelligence? The current explanation of the Title-Text sounds wrong. I think the key phrase above, which should probably be used in the explanation is "unfamiliarity with what good & bad performance looks like in whatever domain is being measured". Overall lack of meta-cognitive ability is definitely not a prerequisite for overestimating your ability in a specialized field; More often, quite intelligent people may appear to overestimate their understanding of a related, but comparatively unfamiliar field. And as the old adage goes (something like) "the wise man knows he is a fool". ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:38, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

So who is the world expert of Imposter Syndrome? Pauline R. Clance or Suzanne A. Imes? Capncanuck (talk) 01:09, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

Can I just say this is the biggest "me" comic I've ever seen? 162.158.75.70 14:00, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

It is refreshing to see that we have a avoided a nasty edit/flame war, considering the current political climate. These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 17:34, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

When the social psychologist is sus!😳 172.69.35.171 16:19, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Does the title text actually make sense? As far as I understand, highly skilled people still tend to rate themselves fairly high, even if that rating tends to be slightly lower than their actual scores. Given this, it shouldn't be a problem getting highly skilled people to agree to present, as long as you can filter out the masses of random undergrads. --172.70.230.73 11:03, 1 May 2023 (UTC)