Impostor feelings and academic decision making: an anchoring vignette approach
研究使用锚定小场景方法，发现南非大学生中女性冒充者感受更强，且这种感受与继续深造意愿负相关，但高冒充者感受的男性比女性更可能放弃深造，而有导师的学生更可能继续学习。
The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) refers to the psychological experience of individuals mistakenly perceiving themselves as incompetent, despite external evidence of their success. Research has highlighted the prevalence of impostor feelings within academic settings, particularly among women. To better understand the gender gap in academia, our research questions explore the role of IP, gender, and support systems as potential predictors of students' decisions to study further, using a South African university student sample. Anchoring vignettes are used to improve the comparability across survey responses. Consistent with previous research, our findings confirm that women report higher levels of impostor feelings compared to men. Moreover, we observe a significant negative association between impostor feelings and the likelihood of students pursuing further studies. Interestingly, men with intense IP levels are more likely to opt out of studying further compared to women with intense impostor feelings. Additionally, individuals with mentors in their field of study are more likely to study further relative to those without mentors. These findings are reinforced when participants advise whether fictional characters in hypothetical situations should study further: characters experiencing high levels of impostor feelings are more frequently advised against studying further.