Impostor syndrome and narcissism are not the same thing: a study from Goethe University Frankfurt tells them apart. People with impostor feelings doubt themselves even in the face of concrete results and fear that sooner or later they will be “found out”. Many mistake this for an inverted form of narcissism. The research says the two are similar, but they do not coincide.
The study, by Kristina Klug and four other authors from the same university, was published online on 23 July 2026 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. It involved 339 people and compared three traits: impostor feelings, vulnerable narcissism and grandiose narcissism.
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