impostor

An impostor is a person who pretends to be someone else or to belong to a group, in order to deceive others or to gain benefits such as trust, access, or status. Impostors may use borrowed identities, false credentials, or staged appearances to support their deception. The term covers a range of behaviors from casual disguise to criminal impersonation.

Impostor syndrome, also called impostor phenomenon, is a psychological pattern in which high-achieving individuals doubt their own abilities and fear being exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of their competence. The concept was described by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. Common experiences include attributing success to luck, discounting praise, setting unrealistically high performance standards, and feeling unworthy. It occurs across genders and cultures and is linked to factors such as perfectionism, family expectations, and social comparison. Coping approaches include cognitive behavioral strategies, mentoring, peer support, and reframing attributions to recognize real achievements.

Legally and socially, impersonation can involve fraud or identity theft, with consequences ranging from civil liability to criminal charges. In everyday life, impostors exploit trust or access to others’ names, credentials, or resources. In literature, film, and games, the impostor trope often centers on a character who hides their true identity to manipulate events or other characters.

In popular culture, the term is widely used in reference to roles such as the “Impostor” in the video game Among Us, where players designated as impostors secretly sabotage the group while others attempt to identify them. See also impersonation and identity theft.