top of page
Search

I love you, Michelle Obama, but PLEASE, on this topic, check the facts.



In early June 2026, taking the stage at the SXSW Festival in London[1], Michelle Obama once again sparked a global conversation about her take on imposter syndrome. This time, the debate centred on her observation that she rarely hears white men talking about experiencing it.


Predictably, the response in mainstream and social media was swift, and comments fell into three camps. Those who were convinced she was absolutely right, those certain she was absolutely wrong, and those confidently jumping in with explanations of the imposter syndrome, despite, clearly, having never read a shred of peer-reviewed research on the topic, ever.


But I’d suggest that the argument was largely about the wrong topics. Quelle surprise!


The real problem is not who experiences it.


The real problem (you’ll be unsurprised to be informed) is that we continue to call it a syndrome at all.


That single word is the most prominent among a range of persistent myths about this experience across four decades.


Strap in, we're going to explore four of the most pernicious fallacies here...


The first myth is that it is a syndrome (remember kids, #itsnotabloodysyndrome).


A syndrome suggests dysfunction, pathology, or some form of internal deficit. It locates the problem within the individual. Yet the people most commonly associated with the impostor phenomenon are often highly capable, highly successful, and demonstrably competent. So, scholars have somehow spent decades studying highly capable people and concluded that the problem must be them.


Also, it appears on no known list of syndromes anywhere.


The second myth is that it is gender bound.


The original research focused on high-achieving women, and somewhere along the way, that became distorted into the belief that women are uniquely affected. Michelle Obama's comments touch directly on this assumption. Yet decades of research have demonstrated that men experience the phenomenon too (yes, even white men!).


The question was never whether men experience it. The question is why we remain so attached to a framework that encourages us to sort people into categories rather than understand the experience itself.


The third myth is that you can just decide to ‘leave it at the door’.


Like the pithy ‘Do these 5 things and cure your imposter syndrome by morning tea,’ clickbait fabrications, the former First Lady’s suggestion that imposter syndrome can simply be left at the door highlights a deeper problem with the concept itself. If it can be consciously set aside when needed, we are not likely to be dealing with a syndrome.


So too, making it sound like a choice over which an individual has ultimate agency, as she suggested in a 2023 talk,[2] because it’s all in people’s heads, is grossly oversimplifying the complexity of the interplay of context, social learning and psychology that underpins the experience. 


Making it sound easy to leave behind, belies her next glittering bauble of misinformation.


The myth that 'you just have to live with it.'


Many prominent figures, including Obama herself, have described imposter syndrome as something you never fully overcome. It is something that stays with you throughout your life.


This is not a blanket reality either.


The experience is learned, and as such, it can be unlearned. Not before morning tea, but once an individual has got to grips with their internal narratives and self-beliefs, and how they’re being fuelled by contextual social constructs.  


What these contradictions reveal is that a complex human experience has been misunderstood, miscommunicated, oversimplified and categorised as something that it is not for decades.


Michelle Obama's comments are valuable because they expose the confusion at the heart of the debate. And, she does touch on one important truth about the role of intersectionality and minority status as being a catalyst for impostor experiences, but that, too, is less about the individual and more about systemic characteristics of context. Indeed, that is a whole other rant.


So, the question is not whether impostor experiences affect women, men, underrepresented groups, leaders, students, or public figures.


For me, the question is why we continue to call it a syndrome when that very label may be responsible for misunderstanding the phenomenon in the first place.

The greatest confidence trick imposter syndrome ever pulled may have been convincing us, and the fabulous Michelle Obama, that it was a syndrome in the first place.


Read more of my thoughts, research, rants and media about the impostor phenomenon at www.forfakesake.org. (no spam promise included).

 


 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page